When you head to your favorite restaurant or brewery, what do you see? At a restaurant you probably see the chefs back in the kitchen frying & sautéing with waiters carrying out steaming dishes. At a brewery you might have noticed numerous pipes heading from the tap board & counter to a chilled room and onto the room with the massive mash tun and fermenting tanks. Have you ever wondered what you are not seeing?

These types of businesses require various types of heavy equipment to keep them churning out that tasty grub and delicious beer. The kitchens require griddles, ranges, ovens, fridges, freezers, food processors, mixers, sinks, etc. All of these items generally don’t affect the structural design but add a large amount of heat to the space. To remove the heat at rate sufficient enough to avoid the staff from bursting into flames requires ventilation which includes exhaust hoods over the ranges and fans to draw the heat out of the building and blow it into the atmosphere. What ever heat can’t be extracted needs to be neutralized by cool air being blown in by large chillers that can vary in weight from the hundreds of pounds to thousands of pounds. Generally, restaurants don’t have a lot of real estate outside the perimeter walls to place this mechanical equipment, so it ends up on the roof. This requires structural engineering to keep all this from crashing down while you chow down on some grub.

For both new builds, and retrofits of existing structures, early involvement of both the structural and mechanical engineers is beneficial for coordination of these items and helps to ensure a smooth construction process. While the rooftop unit weights are an important consideration to the structure, a frequently overlooked coordination item is penetrations through structural elements for HVAC duct, plumbing pipe, and electrical wire runs. Early input from the structural and mechanical disciplines can help the architectural design to understand the best locations for these items to minimize their impact on the aesthetic of the design. Atmosphere and ambience are important in these types of environments, right?

What else contributes to the atmosphere of restaurants & breweries in Colorado? Rooftop decks & seating! This is typically a simple accommodation structurally on new builds but can become a budget-buster on retrofit conversions of existing roofs. The reason for this is that the existing roof elements need to be reinforced to handle approximately 3 times the load than those elements were originally designed for. Additionally, every structural element supporting that roof, such as the exterior walls and foundation elements, needs to be reviewed and possibly reinforced to accommodate that extra design load for the modified use condition. Early involvement of your structural engineer can be beneficial in helping the architectural designer incorporate the necessary reinforcing elements in a way that is visually pleasing and contributes to the aesthetic of the finished space. The moral of the story is that early coordination between the design disciplines contributes to a great project. Especially if you get everyone together over beers at your favorite restaurant or brewery!