NORWICH ­– For this week’s edition of Punching the Clock, I sauntered over to the Eaton Center at 19 Eaton Avenue, enjoying the crisp spring morning air. I had opted to walk instead of driving, believing I would be consigned to the building’s interior for the duration of my stint at the center. I wasn’t quite right, however, but we’ll get to that.
Once on site, I met up with two of the 200,000 square foot building’s custodians, Matt Murphy and Jeff Steward. As luck would have it, the day I arrived was an important, transitional one for the Eaton Center, as the complex was switching over from its winter to its spring ventilation systems. Now, in most homes, this means adjusting a digital thermostat or – at most – dusting off window screens and throwing open doors recently soldered shut with frost. But in the Eaton Center, quite possibly the largest building in the city, making the transition from heating to cooling system is quite a bit more labor intensive.
Murphy and Steward showed me the building’s ventilation system, a massive network of ducts and iron works on the top floor, directly underneath a cooling tower located on the roof and the size of a short bus. The complex ventilation system creates a continues flow of fresh air in the Eaton Center, drawing in air from outside the building while mixing in air pumped-in from the interior. The temperature in different portions of the building can be controlled by the amount of air being sucked in from outside of the building. As the sun moves across the horizon each day, certain portions of the complex need to be heated or cooled, depending on where the sun is hitting it. Thanks to modern technology, the building’s custodians can regulate the temperatures of different sections of the building utilizing their smart phone. Before in the instillation of the new software, the first two hours of Murphy’s mornings consisted of him running to every gauge in the building and recording the meters. Now he can just sit down at a computer, all of the data just a finger click away.
During the county’s warm season, the heating/cooling component of the ventilation system has to be changed out. The 800 or so pound cooling system is made up of a series of coils which are pumped full of cooled water. Once installed into the system, air is jetted across the cold coils by a propeller on the roof that looks like it was stolen from a circa 1940s Boeing B-17E “Flying Fortress” bomber. The rushing air passes through the tightly interlocking network of coils, cooling it to the desired temperature, circulating 20 to 25 percent fresh air at all times.
In order to install the nearly half-ton cooling coils, they must be hoisted off of the ground about five feet and fastened to the ventilation system. To do this, our trio each grabbed a corner … No that’s a lie, instead we grabbed a chain and pulley, hooking it onto the top of the coils, raising it into the air using what Murphy called a “mechanical advantage.”
To give me a better idea of all that is involved in regulating the temperature of a building as large as the Eaton Center, Steward and Murphy took me to the roof of structure to see the tower. The thing was huge. Situated over top of the ventilation system, the water tower is a short, squat structure which collects rain water and houses the jumbo propeller. Outside, we took a moment to enjoy the view. I am not certain if the Eaton Center is the tallest building in Norwich, but standing on top of the water tower it certainly seemed that way.
Back inside, we took the freight elevator down, down, down into the boils of the behemoth edifice. Slinking through the subterranean corridors, our heads bent to avoid low hanging ceilings, we made our way to the boiler room. The ceiling opened up to reveal an expansive room with two large boilers, the seize of a tractor trailer.
“We maintain a temperature between 68 and 72 degrees, which can be an all day battle,” Steward informed me. “People often ask what they are buying when they rent here and it’s 24-hour security.”
The custodians are usually the first to arrive each morning, only being beaten out by a tenant who arrives at 5 a.m. Of course the custodians do much more for the 280 issued key holders who rent at the Eaton Center. For example, they often must perform “fit-ups,” or tailoring to a space to meet the specifications of an incoming tenant. That can mean anything from redoing the wallpaper to augmenting the air flow and accommodating more stringent safety prerequisites from tenets such as BOCES.
“This would never be able to operate as well as it does if we didn’t have such a great crew,” said Administrative Assistant Julia Whitney. “I’ve never worked for such a family type of business.”