AERCO's Benchmark Helps Preserve Priceless Artwork

The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, TX, hosts one of the rarest European and Asian art collections in the state of Texas. The museum houses approximately 350 unique and impressive works of art, including Michelangelo's first known painting, The Torment of Saint Anthony, which is the only painting by Michelangelo on exhibit in the Americas.

The building itself is an architectural and artistic feat, designed by Louis I. Kahn in 1966 and touted as one of the most significant architectural works of recent times. Widely recognized as one of the best environments for viewing art, the Kimbell Art Museum’s wash of silvery natural light across its vaulted gallery ceilings make it especially unique and notable in quality. 

Although the Kimbell Art Museum is home to ancient relics and art that are thousands of years old, it needed a state-of-the-art HVAC system to protect its priceless artifacts. The scope of the project included an overhaul of the entire HVAC system over the course of several months to bring it up to current codes, retrofitting equipment to match existing infrastructure, and the need for redundancy of equipment in case of emergency outages.

The Texas AirSystems team was able to make use of its extensive line card of products to apply high-quality, top-of-the-line equipment solutions to the staggered upgrade in the museum’s mechanical rooms. After taking inventory of the current infrastructure and prioritizing phases with the help of engineering partner Arup, they decided to install two AERCO Benchmark 2500 boilers, equipped with onAER® Predictive Maintenance analytics tool to enable the museum to proactively monitor the system remotely and assist in the system’s precision control and accuracy to protect the priceless artwork. 

During the installation, there was an unusual cold front that occurred forcing the museum to do a temporary startup of the Benchmark boilers on short notice. The Edge Controller’s advanced Automated Combustion Calibration feature helped the facility startup the Benchmark’s quickly and easily in order to maintain the temperature for their priceless collection of art.

In collaboration with Arup and Humphrey & Associates, Texas AirSystems was able to bring the Kimbell Art Museum up to code and assist in preserving millions of dollars’ worth of ancient art pieces by applying high-quality and technology-forward products and systems to existing infrastructure. With onAER’s easy-to-use, front-end monitoring for the Benchmark boilers, the museum’s engineers have advanced control over the system, allowing for easy and exact adjustments, while ensuring the safety of the art in the case of an unprecedented equipment failure.

Watch a video on this installation at the Kimbell Art Museum.