Location
New York, USA
Client
Port Authority of New York and
New Jersey Calpine Corporation
Sector
Science & Technology
Size
4,180 m²
Scope
Confidential
Status
Completed
Situated at the centre of John F. Kennedy International Airport, this co-generation facility provides electrical power and hot and chilled water to meet the needs of the airport. The 110-megawatt natural gas-fired cogeneration plant has two turbine generator sets and two heat recovery steam generators, with one steam turbine generator. It also has 15,000 tons of refurbished chiller capacity.
The unusual nature of the program and the unique site required an inventive design. Visible from every point in the central terminal area, the buildings create a series of curved, streamlined forms. Their bold, sculptural appearance reflects the geometries of the surrounding terminals.
Rather than hide the machinery, the design approach was to show and enhance it. The indoor equipment—including chillers, turbine generators, pumps and piping—is painted in a complimentary palette, and clearly visible during the day and brightly illuminated at night, behind a series of vertical and outward-sloping blue-green tinted glass curtainwalls. The choice of materials—glass, metal panels and screen walls—complements the mechanistic image of the facility.