Efficiency and Innovation at Heart of MWSK Solutions By Jim Clinton, Vice President, MWSK
New York’s built environment leaders are seeing a growing demand for innovative, cost-effective and eco-friendly HVAC technology as the city continues to pursue its Climate Act goals and adjust to the post-pandemic environment. Through waves of upgrades in the multifamily market in particular, the industry is making great strides towards meeting carbon benchmarks and new regulations. One such firm is MWSK, which has placed these goals at the focus of their services as they continue helping owners, engineers, and construction managers find tailored and efficient solutions for their buildings.
Founded in 1974, MWSK has become an industry-leading provider of HVAC services within the New York metro area, providing services to property types ranging from smaller projects to some of the area’s most ascendant. This includes both residential and commercial properties, both areas of which MWSK has demonstrated a proven track record of using its team’s expertise to identify and implement unique and forward-facing solutions.
This track record has resulted in the organization’s trusted reputation with New York’s real estate and AEC players. In the past year, MWSK has worked alongside clients to improve air quality through improved circulation and air cleaning while also meeting sustainability goals–concerns that have taken on a newfound importance in the post-COVID landscape.
The ability to adapt to this landscape has also been at the forefront of MWSK’s recent priorities. The environmental targets emerging from the need to reach net-zero operations and zero on-site emissions among its client base have become industry-wide priorities, resulting in new challenges that the firm has been eager and effective in meeting.
Among these challenges are responding to increase energy efficient requirements along with the ever-changing engineering codes. Adapting to customer requirements based on these new codes is tantamount, as is acquiring the most energy efficient products specified and installed in order to achieve zero emissions. These challenges are particular prevalent in the Northeast, where providing heating in the cold weather while having zero emissions on-site requires careful strategy.
As a result, MWSK is consistently evaluating and reevaluating its product lines and offerings in order to meet client needs. Providing hot water in an area where one is not allowed to provide a gas-fired boiler, for example, can be addressed with a compresorized heat pump. Despite situations and solutions such as these having not presented themselves with much frequency historically, MWSK’s team excels in devising and executing solutions to meet evolving needs quickly.
As testament to the company’s ability to deliver, MWSK recently worked on the Marcus Garvey Extension project, a 10% affordable and supportive housing complex in Brownsville, Brooklyn. With the wider project delivering approximately 348 units and roughly 13,400 square feet of commercial and community facility space, MWSK incorporated the development of a complex HVAC system using cutting-edge water source heat pump recovery chillers to meet both the environmental and functional requirements of the project. This involved utilizing the new heat pump to produce a 140-degree domestic hot water supply out of the site’s geothermal ground loop. As a result, even during winter months, this new system is able to take a subfreezing propylene glycol-and-water mixture from below ground to supply the site with a hot water supply. For this system and its incorporation into the project, MWSK worked alongside Skyline Engineering and Curtin + Ginsburg Architects to ensure a feasible solution.
At the heart of its operations, MWSK understands that the key to success in meeting environmental and air quality goals simultaneously is a continuous collaboration and buy-in from all stakeholders across a project’s lifecycle. By continuing to implement this tenet and work alongside stakeholders and partners from conception and design to project delivery and building maintenance, MWSK distinguishes itself as a firm that works closely with engineers, builders, facility managers and owners to ensure innovative and long-term solutions.
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