504 Broadway
Renovation

Project overview

The 504 Broadway project is a comprehensive redevelopment of a 1960s-era two-story brick masonry building in downtown Troy into a high-performance, three-story Net Zero Energy facility targeting LEED Platinum certification. The project retains the existing building footprint and exterior masonry walls while introducing a mass timber structural frame within the envelope to support the addition of a third floor. The new upper level will feature a glass-enclosed office environment, creating a modern workspace while preserving the character of the historic downtown streetscape. The completed building will contain a ground floor restaurant and lounge, residential apartments on the second floor, and the headquarters of Phinney Design Group on the third floor, totaling approximately 19,800 square feet of mixed-use space.

Sage Engineering Associates is providing full mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering services for the project. Working with Aztech Geothermal, the design team developed a compact ground-source HVAC system capable of supporting Net Zero Energy operation within the constraints of a dense urban site. The geothermal field consists of six 800-foot-deep boreholes, three of which are angle drilled beneath the building footprint to achieve adequate bore spacing on the limited lot.

The geothermal system serves as the primary heating and cooling source for the building and also supports domestic hot water generation. The ground loop water feeds high-efficiency LG water-source VRF heat pump equipment, allowing simultaneous heating and cooling through heat recovery while maintaining precise zone-level comfort control throughout the building. Outdoor air ventilation is provided by a Swegon ultra-high-efficiency energy recovery ventilator with demand-controlled ventilation and VAV airflow modulation.

Additional sustainability measures include a high-performance building envelope, rooftop solar photovoltaic generation designed to partially offset annual building energy use, and fully electric building systems that eliminate on-site fossil fuel combustion. The design team is targeting an Energy Use Intensity in the low 20’s, representing a performance level rarely achieved in mixed-use urban buildings.