New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center

The New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, situated on the Mississippi River and about 1.5 miles from the French Quarter, opened in time for the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition held in New Orleans. Moses Engineers designed the electrical and mechanical systems for this building.

At the time it opened, the facility spanned six football fields. Moses Engineers had to address two problems to get the enormous facility operational: how to evacuate a tremendous amount of water without overloading the City’s strained storm water drainage system and how to provide cool air to this large building economically in New Orleans’ hot and humid climate, especially in warmer months?

Moses Engineers solved the drainage problem by collecting rainwater on the roof and letting it discharge directly into the Mississippi River actually reducing storm water flowing to the City’s storm drains.

To address cooling and heating, Moses Engineers designed a 3,470-ton capacity central refrigeration plant. The refrigeration plant uses a computerized control system to produce the proper temperature and humidity levels. Despite the HVAC’s enormous size, it runs at peak efficiency by allowing air stratification keeping the cool air at floor level.

Other mechanical and electrical work provided:

• air pollution control system that prevents particles from clinging to walls and people. The system collects the particles, reducing odors and pollution. We designed the air pollution control system to save the Convention Center millions in construction costs and thousands each year in utility costs.
• first of its kind accessible under floor boxes that provide power and communications with floor drains, designed to withstand large trucks but also meet safety standards.

The Convention Center has since expanded to 1.1 million square feet with meeting rooms, ballrooms, and a theater.

Most recently:

• Moses has been involved in the energy and aesthetic upgrades to this massive structure.  As the electrical engineers designing the Linear Park, Moses designed power to serve this six block long portion of Convention Center Boulevard, transfiguring one half of this main access artery into to a 7.5 acre pedestrian park with food, gathering and events venues, as well as inviting and relaxing seating opportunities. This work is to be completed in 2020.

• Subsequent to updating the lighting control systems in meeting rooms Moses was selected to replace the lighting and control systems in all exhibit halls.  A performance based specification was utilized to implement tunable white LED lighting with the ability to control individual fixtures to provide the ultimate flexibility for illumination levels and color appearance throughout the 1.1 million square feet of exhibit spaces in this award winning Convention Center.  This system upgrade is providing up to 75% savings on the energy used for lighting as well as a significant refund grant from Entergy’s Energy Smart program. This $7.2 million lighting upgrade is to be completed in 2021.

• In addition, to further enhance energy efficiency, Moses is replacing four 1,200 ton water-cooled chillers, a three cell cooling tower and enhancing their associated pumping systems, including utilizing variable speed drives on all equipment to provide state of the art energy efficiency and again qualify for an Energy Smart grant from Entergy. This $3.0 million mechanical systems upgrade is to be completed in 2021.