Kennesaw State University’s rapid enrollment growth has increased demand for modern on-campus housing. Summit II was developed to help answer that need by adding 126 apartment-style units capable of housing up to 600 students. The project represented more than additional housing capacity; it was an opportunity for the university to introduce advanced mechanical technologies, improve energy efficiency and establish a new approach to guide future campus facilities.
As one of the first buildings on campus to utilize a water-source heat pump system with cooling towers, the project required a mechanical partner with the technical depth to execute a sophisticated, first-time installation and the collaborative approach to make it work across a complex project team.
The HVAC system supporting Summit II was significantly more complex than a typical student housing project. The central mechanical plant — cooling towers, boilers, pumps, chemical treatment equipment, energy recovery units and more than 160 water-source heat pumps — had to operate as one fully integrated system from day one.
As construction progressed, opportunities emerged to enhance serviceability by improving portions of the original mechanical room layout and piping configuration. To seize those opportunities, the owner, engineer, controls contractor and field teams came together to determine what practical improvements were possible — beyond what was shown on the drawings — while maintaining the construction schedule.
Corvant worked closely with general contractor J.E. Dunn, the design engineer, CCI Controls and Kennesaw State University throughout construction, treating the project as a collaborative refinement process rather than a fixed-scope execution.
When opportunities to improve the mechanical room layout emerged, the Corvant team developed revised installation drawings on the fly, incorporating changes without adding time to the construction schedule. Coordination with CCI Controls expanded to the building automation graphics themselves — ensuring the finished system aligned with university standards and was intuitive for the facilities teams managing it in the future.
The completed Summit II is now the most mechanically sophisticated residence hall on the KSU campus, supporting 600 student beds with a fully integrated water-source heat pump system built for long-term efficiency and reliability.
The mechanical approach Corvant helped refine during construction is now a reference point for HVAC system development throughout the campus. It’s the kind of outcome that results from collaboration, technical expertise and proactive problem solving coming together on the same project.
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