Harbor Towers serves as an architectural landmark for the city of Boston. The towers were originally designed as affordable housing, but with their sweeping views of Boston Harbor, each 40-story tower housing 320 condo units are now some of the city’s most desirable pieces of real estate. However, the buildings’ waterfront location and exposure to saltwater accelerated the deterioration and corrosion of the towers’ entire HVAC piping system.

The complex Harbor Towers MEP Repairs and Replacement project comprised two main phases. The first phase required the removal of all air-handling units, electrical equipment, and pumps, which were then replaced with redundant systems so as to not disrupt service to tenants. The second phase required entry into all units to remove and subsequently replace all of the old riser piping and fan coil units. Because some of the towers’ most critical mechanical and emergency systems were housed in the penthouses, this project presented the challenge of using a helicopter to transfer the materials necessary to make the system updates.