COLUMBUS, OH — Condaire Inc., a St. Louis, MO-based mechanical contractor, did an extraordinary thing last year. The company rented a high-powered industrial helicopter to lift 90,000 lbs of air conditioning equipment to the roof of the 42-story James A. Rhodes State Office Tower in Columbus.

Condaire used a Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane helicopter to hoist the equipment, which included three chillers divided into sub-assemblies weighing up to five tons each, to the top of the building. According to the company, the chillers have a combined cooling capacity of 2,700 tons, or enough to cool about 600 homes. The new chillers use an environmentally-friendly refrigerant and are “significantly more energy efficient” than the 29-year-old units they replaced, according to Condaire project manager Jim Duckworth.

The Rhodes Tower was built in 1973 and is the fourth tallest office building in Ohio.

Publication date: 02/25/2002