The first day of operation of the San Francisco Marriott Hotel and Convention Center was marked by the Loma Prieta earthquake, which struck just a few hours after opening. Although there were several hundred thousand dollars of losses in the furniture, glass, wine, food service and equipment, the only damage to the HVAC systems was one flex connector coming loose from a fancoil. After this initial "shakedown", the building has become one of the recognizable landmarks in San Francisco along with the Transamerica Pyramid and Coit Tower.

Planning and design of the HVAC systems began in 1985, four full years before opening. ACCO was both the Design Engineer of Record and the dry side HVAC contractor to the prime mechanical contractor. Marriott acted as their own general contractor for this job, which was the biggest design build project they had ever built. The ACCO design team spent several weeks in Gaithersberg, Maryland at the Marriott corporate offices working with their architects and other engineers to develop the major portions of the job.

The system was a chilled water/hot water VAV design for the public spaces and vertical stacking fancoils for the guestrooms. Even though this is a common system for premium hotels, several special challenges were encountered such as an eight story interior atrium with ponds and fountains and an indoor swimming pool on the 3rd floor. Late in the construction, a Beni Hana style Japanese restaurant with cooking at each table and 14 separate grease exhaust systems was added to the job. A large underground concourse passes under Mission Street to access the Main Ballroom and Meeting Rooms which provide a huge meeting space, second in area only to the adjoining Moscone Convention Center. The project consisted of 1,500 rooms, 34 floors, and 1,300,000 square feet of area.

Project Team

• Owner/Builder - Marriott Hotel
• Architect - DMJM
• Mechanical Engineer - ACCO Engineered Systems