New High-Rise Project in Warsaw!

Late last week was the official public announcement of Mennica Legacy Tower, a two-building office development located in Warsaw, Poland. For this project Epstein is serving as the architect and engineer of record, as well as the design engineer for MEP and structural engineering services. Goettsch Partners is the design architect for this Class A office development and Epstein, in addition to our design and engineering role, is also helping guide this project through Warsaw's unique governmental approval process.

Mennica features a 35-story tower located on the south east side of the site and a smaller 10-story building on the west side of the site, and will be located in the Central Business District of Warsaw at the intersection of Prosta and Żelazna Streets. Mennica is part of a newly-approved master plan that governs development in this area. This project consists of approximately 100,000 gross square meters, with 80,000 gross square meters of Class A office space which includes a conference and a fitness center as well as ground level retail. Four levels of underground parking and ancillary services encompass the remaining 20,000 gross square meters. Between the two structures is a large open plaza that provides ample space for outdoor seating and a variety of landscape features.

As the lead MEP engineer Epstein is designing an array of sophisticated mechanical and electrical systems for the main tower. For instance the chilled water plant consists of multiple water cooled chillers, pumps, and closed type cooling towers and the complex will be heated from the district heating mains via a central heat exchanger plant. Mennicas air handling system for the typical office will consist of multiple roof/ technical level mounted air handling units configured with rotor or glycol type heat exchangers. The electrical system will be powered by two MV (15 kV) cables connected with 2-section MV switchgear and the lighting systems for this project consist of a combination of high efficient fluorescent and LED for general lighting, LED task lighting in offices, and LED site lighting.

Mennicas structural design features a collaboration between Epsteins Chicago and Warsaw offices. The 35-story tower structure is of cast in place concrete construction with a pile supported raft foundation under a central core that cantilevers up to 8.2m from its base footprint to deliver column free post-tensioned concrete flat slab interior spans. The 10-story building is also of cast in place concrete construction with a central core and post-tensioned concrete flat slab interior spans. The four below grade levels will include a perimeter slurry wall and will be built utilizing the "top down" construction method.

Construction on Mennica Legacy Tower is expected to begin late in 2015 and will be completed late in 2018.

Lastly, Mennica has been designed to achieve BREEAM certificate at "Excellent" level.