Navigating Constraints to Transform Existing Space for an RTP Data Center

Wooten collaborated with a global technology company to provide design assistance retrovating an existing building on its Research Triangle park campus. With practically all disciplines in-house – including architectural and electrical, mechanical, plumbing and civil engineering – Wooten teams took a building enveloped with a wide variety of design and construction limitations and gave it new life as a highly functional, LEED Gold certified, visually pleasing working environment. Project features included replacing a ballasted roof with an adhered, reflective roof with over 20,000 square feet of solar panels.

The exterior building surface was filled in with concrete block and covered with insulated aluminum panels. All windows were replaced with maximally clear, solar reflective tempered glass. Individually stained brick and mortar were installed to match burgundy color schemes, as seen elsewhere on the campus. A court was constructed for generators and transformers needed to supply power to the data center. Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) was provided to maintain operations instantaneously in the event of a power outage. A Central Utility Plant (CUP) was constructed for cooling the building as required for data center operations and reclaimed water lines were constructed to supply the CUP and site irrigation. A model space was created to coordinate the data cabinets, cable trays, bus ducts, sprinkler lines, lights, etc., and, additionally, flooring was replaced with a conductive type in a pattern which identified pedestrian circulation and rows for server cabinets.