Wintrust Sports Complex at Bedford Park – a multi-purpose sports tourism and local programming facility – recently opened its doors after completing construction in September 2021. The 2-story, 111,000 square foot venue houses 8 high school hardwood basketball courts (or 16 NCAA volleyball courts), one championship court, a Redemption Arcade, Laser Tag/Laser Frenzy, an e-Sports Café, flexible meeting and event space, a café with full kitchen service and lounge, and offices.

Working in collaboration with ALPA Construction, Elara Engineering’s services for the project included Schematic Design, Design Development, Permit/Bid/Construction Documents, Bidding, Construction Services, and Functional Testing.

Creative Solutions

A key challenge for this project was the need to address the many, highly diverse uses of the building which included individual offices, café/lounge space, recreational areas (e-Café, laser tag), flexible event spaces, and a large, high-ceiling sports facility (gymnasium). As the project’s MEPFP engineer responsible for the design of MEPFP equipment and infrastructure for the newly constructed facility, Elara’s design team – beyond addressing the overall MEPFP design challenges posed by the diverse uses of the facility – successfully incorporated the following sustainable project features:

• Outdoor air CO₂ control, saving energy by tracking CO₂ levels within the occupied spaces.
• Energy recovery enthalpy wheels to recapture energy from the discharge air stream to pre heat or pre cool the mixed air.
• Variable speed compressors for rooftop units operate efficiently based on space load.
• Fabric ductwork distribution system within the gymnasium.
• State-of-the-Art web-based, open protocol building automation system.
• Lighting control that includes occupancy sensors and automatic daylight harvesting.

Additional design elements include:

• Gas-fired packaged rooftop units that are either single-zone VAV or VAV for individual room control to effectively serve all areas and functional uses of the building.
• VAV systems are a combination of perimeter fan powered and interior single-zone VAV boxes with electric reheat.
• Bathrooms are exhausted with variable flow toilet exhaust, including automatic Control dampers.
• Natural gas generator for life safety, elevator, and fire pump.
• Event power distribution system.