Designed for growth and flexibility, the new National Support Center anticipates future technological advancements that will promote the expansion and quality of services provided by the Social Security Administration. Upon completion, it will comply with Mission Critical Criteria from the Uptime Institute, including Tier 3 design certification standards and will provide the infrastructure necessary to support an estimated IT load of 10MW.
Brian George, Corgan Principal for the project, adds “Through an integrated design approach and a collaborative effort with SOM and our engineering partners, our design is able to meet and exceed the goals set by GSA by leveraging the Building Information Modeling (BIM) platform to provide the energy analysis and sustainable principles for the new campus.”
Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the state-of-the-art office and data center facility aims to set the benchmark for optimal energy performance in federal data centers. The new SSA campus is expected to meet all Federal energy and water conservation goals while achieving LEED® GOLD Certification.
Jeffrey J. McCarthy, SOM Managing Partner, states, “The National Support Center represents the next generation of office and data center design excellence for the federal government in public architecture. SOM values our longstanding partnership with the GSA and shares its commitment to high performance sustainable design at every level.”
The Corgan/SOM design team will achieve energy efficiency through advanced building control systems, climatically responsive layouts, waste reduction principles, natural day-lighting, and solar control, both by building orientation and with solar control devices. Additional, high performance sustainable design permeates the new design with such elements as a six (6) acre array of photovoltaic (pv) panels and the recapture of stormwater to assist with cooling and provide potable water throughout the facilities.
The mechanical engineering and plumbing design will be provided by KTA, Southland Mechanical, and MC Dean Electrical, civil engineering and landscape architecture by Timmons Group, and Thornton Tomasetti will provide the structural engineering design for the project.
Reference: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, Crogan
