$10 Million Renovation of Hotel deLuxe
Located in downtown Portland, this 8-story, 130-room hotel was built in 1912 by Rufus Mallory, former U.S. attorney for Oregon and a U.S. congressman. Bought in the 1940s by Albert Gentner, a Portland attorney, the Mallory was owned and managed by the Gentner family until 2004 when it was sold to Portland-based Provenance Hotels for $7.9 million. Specializing in high-end boutique hotels, Provenance renamed the hotel for the vintage Hollywood color lab deLuxe and committed $10 million to a total renovation of the hotel in 2005, opening its doors under the new name Hotel deLuxe in May 2006.Glorifying Hollywood: the Glamor and Golden Age of Film
In 2005, Provenance Hotels President Gordon Sondland called San Francisco designer David Hill and asked him what he thought of a “Hollywood in the 1940s” approach for a total facelift to the venerable hotel. “Because the golden-age of Hollywood has a nostalgic, glamorous appeal to this northwest community, it sounded like a perfect fit,” replied Hill. The result is a modern retro hotel with crystal chandeliers and more than 400 huge photographs in the corridors and all 130 rooms from Hollywood films ranging from the 1930s to the 1950s. Each floor carries a Hollywood theme: second floor—The Maestro (Alfred Hitchcock); third floor—The Dance and Music Masters (Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire); fourth floor—The Rebels (Orson Wells, Elia Kazan, John Huston and John Ford); and more all the way to the eighth floor.
21st Century Comforts and Technologies
But the 1940s era stops with the décor. The first hotel in Portland to offer full HDTV capabilities, flat-screen televisions, MP3 menus, MP3 listening stations and high-speed wireless Internet service in every room, Provenance Hotels wanted their newest boutique hotel to have all the luxuries and technologies that would appeal to Portland’s business and leisure travelers. One of the most important comforts envisioned by Provenance Hotels was to outfit the deLuxe with a state-of-the-art, advanced cooling and heating solution.
Diamond Designers: Mitsubishi Electric Meets Hollywood
In 2005, Provenance’s construction manager, David Kennedy, put the HVAC contract out for bid. After reviewing proposals from many Portland area firms, Provenance Hotels gave the nod to the Mitsubishi Diamond Designer team from HVAC, Inc., Milwaukie, Ore. Mitsubishi Diamond Designers are engineers or design/build contractors trained to design systems from Mitsubishi Electric Cooling and Heating Solutions, Suwanee, Ga. The Mitsubishi Diamond Designer program is a recognition program for those who have achieved the highest level of training in order to better serve their clients.
VRF Zoning Systems: Perfect for Deluxe Renovation Needs
Diane K. Gardner, HVAC, Inc. project manager, said Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) zoning systems from Mitsubishi Electric are a perfect solution for the deLuxe renovation needs. She said Provenance Hotels could have selected a water-source heat pump system, but instead chose to go with Mitsubishi Electric. “No one in the industry touches their installed price, and the finest way to ensure total comfort for the occupants of each guest room is to provide each individual zone with a personalized comfort system,” she said.
Gardner listed Mitsubishi Electric advantages and benefits over a typical water-source system:
• an average system life of 20 years versus 15 years for a conventional system
• superior design flexibility for all the guest rooms
• less overall maintenance
• much quieter performance from indoor air handlers—as low as 24 dB(A)—and outdoor units—as quiet as 56 dB(A)
• INVERTER technology that saves substantial energy costs
• simultaneous cooling and heating—zones are actively cooled in one zone while heated in another
• comfort control—Mitsubishi Electric delivers precise individual comfort regardless of the time of day, location of the sun or season
• an advanced control network that manages the entire deLuxe operation from a single dedicated PC
• the use of environmentally-friendly R410A refrigerant
Roof Load: a Deciding Factor
Gardner said another deciding factor for the Mitsubishi Electric system was the important matter of roof load. The 14 outdoor units, at an average of 500 pounds each, have a total distributed roof load of approximately 7,000 pounds. This meant that Provenance Hotels didn’t have to pay for the installation and cost of a special support structure to hold up the roof, which might have been the case if a new water-source system had called for a second cooling tower, which would add an additional 5,000 pounds, for a total 10,000 pounds of concentrated roof load.
94-year-old Building: Fitting Host to 21st Century Technology
According to Gardner, another Mitsubishi Electric advantage is this turn-of-the-century building was not designed for air conditioning. Provenance realized significant savings because the VRF zoning system refrigerant piping and electrical wiring require only a small footprint. HVAC, Inc. created a small multi-purpose shaft in the ceilings of the ice room on each floor to carry the lines down from the rooftop outdoor units.
No other HVAC competitor could provide the deLuxe installation with the many Mitsubishi Electric advantages and cost savings. With a single exception, none of the other major names in the industry have a 6-, 8- or 9-ton split system. The one competitor that makes a 6- or 8-ton outdoor unit requires three pipes versus Mitsubishi Electric’s two pipes, causing the installation costs to double, which would have meant that on the deLuxe roof, Provenance Hotels would have had to install twice as many outdoor mini-split units requiring an entirely new roof system. What’s more, a 3-ton outdoor unit can manage only three indoor units versus the PURY 9-ton unit which can handle up to 20 indoor units.
And finally, the smaller height, size and lighter weight of the fan motors and ducted fan coils of the indoor air handlers allowed for maximum interior space to be used in each guest room. The Branch Circuit Controllers fit perfectly into the false ceilings of the corridors on each floor.
Installation Takes Four Months
Provenance Hotels management decided the hotel could not remain open during renovation. The hotel was closed from January to May 2006, a minimal downtime compared to that of conventional system. Starting from the top floor, crews from HVAC, Inc. first removed the ductwork and old air handlers from the Mallory Hotel. Working side by side with crews from Western Construction Services, Inc., Vancouver, British Columbia, they closed the old chilled and hot water piping system on all but the ground floor; the boilers and chillers in the basement were shut down.
HVAC, Inc. then forged a new ducting network for the ceiling-concealed and ceiling-mounted air handlers on all seven floors. Next, they installed a wide variety of Mitsubishi Electric air handlers to perfectly fit the configuration and loads of all 130 guest rooms. Five additional indoor units were installed in the Fitness Center and offices on the ground level. Provenance Hotels decided that the elegant first floor lobby space, their renowned restaurant, Driftwood Room, and meeting spaces would be cooled with the old multi-zoned water-source system which HVAC, Inc. refurbished with a new control system.
Innovative Engineering and World-class Quality
“The ‘bones’ of the original structure remain fantastic,” says Howard Jacobs, chief operating officer, Provenance Hotels. “Much of [the Mallory] had every reason to remain: the gold-leafed ceilings, the columns and crystal chandeliers, but we needed a dependable cooling and heating solution to complement the success of the deLuxe transformation. We found just what we were looking for in the innovative engineering and world-class quality of the Mitsubishi Electric VRF zoning system installed this year. We have had nothing but positive feedback from our guests regarding the comfort of our rooms.”
