National Institutes of Health Building 35-35A Retro-Commissioning and TAB

Health & Science

In 2021, AFG was tasked to lead the 1st full Retro-Commissioning & Testing and Balance (TAB) project for the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, MD. This groundbreaking project addresses Buildings 35 and 35A, which consist of more than 600K SF and serve over 1,200 clinical research scientists. These facilities, also known as the John Edward Porter Neuroscience Research Center I and II, now host seven institutes and an assortment of research laboratories, vivaria (over 20,000 animal cages), labs & other clinical spaces, imaging suites, offices, and support facilities.

Prior to this project, both buildings experienced consistent and severe reliability issues with HVAC systems serving mission-critical labs. The Retro-commissioning project will include a review of the existing DDC & Building Automation Systems for each building, as well as all HVAC equipment located in the two buildings inclusive of several thousand pieces of equipment.

As the Prime CQM contractor, AFG provided an expert and experienced team to manage and execute this project. Due to the critical nature of the project and systems, AFG has also developed communications and outage processes for the systems interruptions and equipment manipulation required.

The buildings will remain occupied throughout the duration of the project, requiring coordination between AFG, subcontractors, NIH, and tenant agencies to ensure that day-to-day work is not interrupted and sensitive TAB equipment is not disturbed. AFG has developed and maintained a detailed schedule including forecasting outages, and surveying building end-users for current known issues and setup.

Owner: National Institutes of Health

Completion Date: 2021-2022

Services: Commissioning, Construction Quality Management, & Prime