MGM National Harbor Building and Garage, Prince George County, MD

“Size:
1,700,000 GSF

Services:
Energy Modeling
CFD Study

Highlights:
High-rise Building”

MGM National Harbor is a premier entertainment destination and the first luxury gaming resort in the Capital Region, employing 3,700 people. The hotel reached capacity 242 nights during its first year of operation and totaled more than 6 million visitors.

The most anticipated development project in Prince George’s County includes a garage, the main entertainment area, which has a glass-ceiling conservatory, outdoor terrace and 21-story, 300-room hotel tower. The MGM conservatory is part of the new hotel and casino project at the National Harbor in Washington, DC. The conservatory is an 80 foot tall atrium with 13,000 SF of floor area and 16,000 SF of roof, which is entirely covered by a skylight. The spaces surrounding the first floor are primarily retail type, and most of them are separated from the atrium by a curtain wall. The second floor is 25 feet height, opens to the atrium and extends to the top of the space.

SETTY services include energy modeling for the MGM building and garage. Scope of work include LEED Credits EAp2 and EAc1. SETTY performed a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study of the air flow in the atrium and surrounding spaces in order to improve the HVAC design for meeting peak loads in the winter and summer. CFD was to be used to insure that there were uniform and comfortable air temperatures throughout the floor level of the atrium and on the second story floors that were open to the atrium. The purpose of the CFD study was to support engineers in assessing air flow and thermal comfort. Four scenarios were modeled: A high cooling load day was simulated for floor and ceiling extracts. A high heating load day was simulated with and without a radiant floor.