A L E X A N D E R Q U E R C E T T I | M E C H A N I C A L O P T I O N
BUILDING STATISTICS
Building Name: Army Administration Facility
Location: Mid-Atlantic, USA Building Occupant Name: Withheld due to owner's request. Occupancy or Function Types: Government office building with adjoining courtroom Size: 97,000 sq. ft.
Number of Stories above Grade/ Total: 4 Dates of Construction: Sept 2010 – Sept 11, 2011 Total Project Cost: $30 million Project Team:
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Project Delivery Method: Design-Build, one year fast track for design and construction.
Architecture
Located in the heart of the mid-Atlantic region, this building is a government administration facility serving as a Command Headquarters for the U.S. Army. The 97,000 square foot brick facility will house approximately 400 personnel, the majority of which will be lawyers, since the building will serve as a judicial headquarters for the Army. Containing information sensitive law offices, the building’s private offices and conference rooms require floor to ceiling walls to minimize sound dispersion. The building’s four stories include administrative space, an emergency operations center, a data processing center, executive office suites, a sensitive compartmented information facility, and an adjoining courtroom, as well as a separate above grade parking garage. Rather than add a visible roof penthouse, the designer opted to use a portion of the fourth floor to hide the penthouse behind a false brick façade, making it virtually unnoticeable from the ground.
Model Codes:
Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT 05)
Department of Defense Minimum Antiterrorism Standards for Buildings (ATFP)
2006 International Building Code (IBC)
2006 International Mechanical Code (IMC)
2006 International Plumbing Code (IPC)
2006 International Energy Conservation Code (IEC)
National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)
Zoning:
Zoning requirements for the building must comply with Unified Facilities Criteria (UFC) that applies to Military Departments, Defense Agencies, and DoD field Activities. Specific codes include: UFC 3-410-01FA, and UFC 4-010-01.
During the design process, there was a total building height restriction of 50 feet, but after the project was awarded, the restriction was lifted.
Historical Requirements: None, the building is new and the site is not in a historical district.
Building Enclosure
Building Facade:
Figure 1
The Army Administration facility is composed mainly of a prefabricated brick and Concrete Masonry Unit façade as seen in Figure 1. The attached courtroom and adjoining spaces are also prefabricated brick and CMU, with a large percentage of double-paned glazing framed by aluminum panels. An interesting feature of the building is the penthouse; in accordance with height restrictions, the penthouse was place in a “well” on the fourth floor of the building. This means that a portion of the occupied space on the fourth floor was designated for the penthouse, but the façade continues around the building, camouflaging the rooftop units.
Roofing: |
Sustainability Features:
The Army Administration facility was designed and built to achieve LEED Silver certification. Such features lending to the sustainability
of the design include:
· A reflective white roof membrane (refer to Figure 2).
· A continuous air barrier at all exterior wall assemblies to prevent infiltration and exfiltration, lowering energy consumption.
· Increased U-values of roof, walls, and windows past the ASHRAE 90.1 baseline minimums.
of the design include:
· A reflective white roof membrane (refer to Figure 2).
· A continuous air barrier at all exterior wall assemblies to prevent infiltration and exfiltration, lowering energy consumption.
· Increased U-values of roof, walls, and windows past the ASHRAE 90.1 baseline minimums.
Mechanical System Overview
The spaces in the Army Administration Building are ventilated with Fan Powered Induction Units (FPIUs) each served by a Dedicated
Outdoor Air Unit (DOAU), also known as a Dedicated Outdoor Air System (DOAS), located on the south end of the fourth level. This DOAU is a packaged unit that supplies 100% of the outside air to the building. The FPIU was developed by the Mechanical Engineers at Southland Industries and they serve to both cool and heat the space. This induction unit is similar to old induction units from the
1970s, but this new version utilizes a series fan powered unit controlled by an Electronically Commutated Motor (ECM) that includes an inlet control damper and an airflow ring. These new induction units also include a sensible cooling coil, an optional heating coil, and a face loading filter. The FPIU is able to produce a consistent supply of filtered dry ventilation air and requires 20% of the duct distribution as compared to a VAV system. This is made possible because an FPIU takes in return air directly from the plenum space rather than exhaust duct circulating the air back through an air handling unit. Each FPIU has its own sensible chilled water cooling coil that modulates to space conditions and can operate independently from the main air handler for sensible loads. They are fed by an evaporative condensing chiller supplying 55 degree water throughout the building. The bulk of air conditioning capacity can be carried through small chilled water piping instead of ductwork, reducing infrastructure space requirements by a factor of four. To heat each space the FPIUs also have a heating coil that is served by two boilers in the penthouse. There is a solar hot water heater in the penthouse that provides 30% of the peak domestic hot water load. The remaining 70% of the load is provided by gas fired burners. However, the building will rarely reach its peak load, so the solar hot water heater should consistently provide a majority of the domestic hot water. If the solar hot water heater were to fail, the boilers in the penthouse are also connected to a heat exchanger in the domestic hot water heater as a back-up.
There are also several Variable Air Volume (VAV) units in spaces that have a higher latent load and require more primary air. An FPIU has a limit on the amount of primary air it can handle, so larger spaces, such as the conference rooms and the courtroom, require a VAV to provide more CFMs.
To help increase occupant controlled thermal comfort, each FPIU serves no more than three rooms. They are capable of trending zone conditions and outdoor air rates to avoid issues with indoor air quality.
Outdoor Air Unit (DOAU), also known as a Dedicated Outdoor Air System (DOAS), located on the south end of the fourth level. This DOAU is a packaged unit that supplies 100% of the outside air to the building. The FPIU was developed by the Mechanical Engineers at Southland Industries and they serve to both cool and heat the space. This induction unit is similar to old induction units from the
1970s, but this new version utilizes a series fan powered unit controlled by an Electronically Commutated Motor (ECM) that includes an inlet control damper and an airflow ring. These new induction units also include a sensible cooling coil, an optional heating coil, and a face loading filter. The FPIU is able to produce a consistent supply of filtered dry ventilation air and requires 20% of the duct distribution as compared to a VAV system. This is made possible because an FPIU takes in return air directly from the plenum space rather than exhaust duct circulating the air back through an air handling unit. Each FPIU has its own sensible chilled water cooling coil that modulates to space conditions and can operate independently from the main air handler for sensible loads. They are fed by an evaporative condensing chiller supplying 55 degree water throughout the building. The bulk of air conditioning capacity can be carried through small chilled water piping instead of ductwork, reducing infrastructure space requirements by a factor of four. To heat each space the FPIUs also have a heating coil that is served by two boilers in the penthouse. There is a solar hot water heater in the penthouse that provides 30% of the peak domestic hot water load. The remaining 70% of the load is provided by gas fired burners. However, the building will rarely reach its peak load, so the solar hot water heater should consistently provide a majority of the domestic hot water. If the solar hot water heater were to fail, the boilers in the penthouse are also connected to a heat exchanger in the domestic hot water heater as a back-up.
There are also several Variable Air Volume (VAV) units in spaces that have a higher latent load and require more primary air. An FPIU has a limit on the amount of primary air it can handle, so larger spaces, such as the conference rooms and the courtroom, require a VAV to provide more CFMs.
To help increase occupant controlled thermal comfort, each FPIU serves no more than three rooms. They are capable of trending zone conditions and outdoor air rates to avoid issues with indoor air quality.
Electrical/Lighting System Overview
The electrical system of the Army Administration Facility uses a 480/277V Building Utilization Voltage. Also included is a 150kVA UPS with 15 minute backup capability for all critical loads such as Secure Networking and IT storage. The emergency lighting is powered by individual batteries. All luminaires utilize fluorescent sources and are controlled by occupancy sensors in each space. It was calculated that the lighting in the facility will require roughly 85,000 W/sq.ft.
Structural System Overview
The foundation of the Army Administration facility consists of concrete spread footings with a 4 in. slab-on-grade. The foundation walls are composed of load bearing masonry. The building itself is treated as two separate entities, the courthouse and the administrative building, each having its own unique structural system. The courthouse has mostly 30K9 or 28K7 steel trusses supported by wide flange girders connected to HSS12x12x1/2 (typ.) hollow structural steel columns. The administrative facility, the larger of the two buildings, utilizes
10-1/2 in. reinforced concrete slabs with 24x32 in. concrete columns. See Figure 4 for clarification of the courthouse and administrative buildings.
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Construction Overview
The Suffolk Construction Company was the construction management team during the Army Administration Facility project. Both the design and construction of the building had to be completed by September 11, 2011, in commemoration of the ten year anniversary of 9/11. Since the construction team didn't break ground until September 2010, this gave one year for project completion. Because of the fast tracked schedule, design-build was the most practical project delivery method.
Fire Protection
The Army Administration Faciltiy will abide by the codes and standards set forth by the current versions of: National Fire Protection Association (NFPA); 54 – National Fuel Gas Code, 90a – Installation of Air Conditioning and Ventilating Systems, 96 – Standard for Ventilation Control and Fire Protection of Commercial Cooking Operations, 101 – Life Safety Code. The steel members in the courthouse area are all sprayed with a fire-proofing material to preserve the structural integrity of the steel during a fire. The entire facility is equipped with a wet-pipe sprinkler system, meaning that automatic sprinklers are attached to piping containing water and that is connected to water supply through a riser check valve. Water discharges immediately from sprinklers when they are opened. Sprinklers open when heat melts fusible link or destroys frangible device.
Transportation
Since the Army Administration Facility has a maximum of four floors and is roughly 240' on its longest end, there are only three elevators in the building. Two are located roughly in the center of the administrative building that can accessed from the central lobby. The third is closer to the north end of the administrative building and is butt-up against one of the two primary staircases. There are two staircases for public use located about 80' from each end of the administrative building. The courthouse is only one story high on ground level, so it requires no stairs or elevators.
Telecommunications
Underground conduit carries telecom wires from the east, connecting from the campus system. It connects to the building via the main service entrance telecommunication room, located on the first floor by the east entrance, denoted Telecom Demark.
Note: While great efforts have been taken to provide accurate and complete information on the pages of CPEP, please be aware that the information contained herewith is considered a work-in-progress for this thesis project. Modifications and changes related to the original building designs and construction methodologies for this senior thesis project are solely the interpretation of Alexander Quercetti. Changes and discrepancies in no way imply that the original design contained errors or was flawed. Differing assumptions, code references, requirements, and methodologies have been incorporated into this thesis project; therefore, investigation results may vary from the original design.
This page was last updated on 1/17/2012, by Alexander Quercetti and is hosted by the AE Department ©2011
This page was last updated on 1/17/2012, by Alexander Quercetti and is hosted by the AE Department ©2011