Planning the Construction of a
Mission Critical Facility
Involved with our client from day one, Structure Tone worked on a modified design-build basis with the architect/engineer. We participated in the evaluation of eight sites, creating comparison matrices based on major considerations such as available power, infrastructure and prevailing wind direction. We developed early budgets to meet a client metric of less than $5M/MW for the overall facility, and the final project cost came in at those first estimates. Subcontractors were involved early as design/build partners to most effectively further the design and gain local market knowledge.
Structure Tone participated in value engineering, helping our client increase the processing power within each wing—ultimately reduce the number of wings required, thus saving budget and schedule. BIM was utilized for clash detection and coordination. At completion the model was turned over to the facility operators as a management tool.
100% Outside Air Cooled
The new 184,500sf data center was envisioned to be scalable, therefore work was performed in phases. The project included 75,000sf of white space day-one expandable to 150,000sf and supports an 18MW IT load. The structure is a pre-engineered metal building. There is a single-story office/administration center and five (three constructed Phase I and two under construction Phase II) data center wings. To accommodate the 100% outside air cooling, the facility is a long narrow complex of structures often referred to as a “computing coop.”
For the data wings, the generator system is N+1 (EPS). The 100% air-cooled system includes hot/cold aisle separation facilitated by air economizer and extensive use of louvers for air intake and heat rejection. Server fans are the primary medium for moving air. There is no raised floor. The data center achieved a PUE of 1.08.
