Nieman Marcus Nieman Marcus

Nieman Marcus at both the Westfield Garden State Mall in Paramus and the Mall at Short Hills replaced their original Trane rooftop chillers and water towers in late winter 2023, after decades of faithful service.

At Paramus, the rooftop units were out of reach of any of the largest North Jersey cranes. Therefore, a massive 550-ton Liebherr 1450 crane, with only a handful of such cranes this size across North America, was brought in. It took all night and a second crane to build the massive crane. A timelapse of the 6-hour process is included in the case study video. Once the crane was built and extended to its full size of 279 feet, it only took until noon for the experienced Evco crew to remove and replace all six rooftop units. Those six units were at the very edge of the super crane’s reach.

At Short Hills, 22 days later, the work required a smaller 220-ton crane and only took eight hours, but it still came with its own host of challenges. The rooftop chillers and water towers at the Short Hills store may have been close enough to the street for the reach of a conventional crane, but the twin chillers – each weighing 16 thousand pounds – were located inside the top floor of the four-story structure. This meant cutting a floor-to-ceiling opening in the wall of the store, a temporary opening that had to be reinforced with steel to ensure the wall wouldn’t collapse during operations. Neither chiller could touch the roof of the building without potentially collapsing it due to the weight, so rigging the units properly was crucial.

Fortunately, the operations at both locations went according to plan and were conducted as usual to minimize inconvenience to the store’s operations and customers.