TIGHT FIT IN A MANHATTAN CANYON.

The Austrian Cultural Institute in New York showcases the visual and vocal arts of the Alpine nation in its atrium, gallery, library, and theater. The Institute is also a testament to painstaking efforts in designing and installing the HVAC system for the 23-floor high-rise, which is on an oddly shaped 25-foot-wide site on Third Avenue in the heart of midtown Manhattan.

According to the project's consulting engineers, Ove Arup and Partners, New York, the building's small footprint meant that only a 1/16-inch error was permissible in most cases in installing the HVAC equipment. The gear included dehumidifying heat pumps designed by Dectron Internationale of Atlanta. The heat pumps cool, heat, and remove moisture from the 38,000-square-foot Institute.

Center Sheet Metal, the project's mechanical contractor, had to place two Dectron heat pumps into the subcellar of the building. The contractors rigged and very slowly lowered the pumps down the elevator shaft with less than one-inch clearance on all sides. It took the contractors two days to lower the units approximately 30 feet.

A third Dectron heat pump serves the 100-seat theater. The company designed the heat pump to be 104 inches long, 72 inches wide, and 24 inches tall so it would fit in the ceiling of the theater's mezzanine--level restroom, leaving an inch of clearance on each side. This fit is so tight that the entire heat pump must be lowered with jacks for routine servicing, such as changing its filter.

Because only a single wall separates the heat pump and the theater, the project's engineers commissioned Dectron to build quiet compressors and fans so that theater patrons would not be disturbed.