Building Statistics Assignment
General Building Information
- Owner: Baylor College Of Medicine
- Owner Representative: Fluor Enterprises, Inc.
- Architect: Lord, Aeck & Sargent, Inc.
- Construction Manager: Vaughn Construction
- MEP Engineers: Bard, Rao + Athanas Consulting Engineers, LLC.
- Structural Engineers: Walter P. Moore
- Curtain Wall Consultants: Curtain Wall Design and Consulting, Inc.
- Planned: October 2005 – Late 2007
- Ground Breaking: September 15, 2005
- Construction Cost: $75,000,000
- Total Project Cost: Approx. $110,000,000 (Includes equipment, FFE, Casework, etc)
Building Systems Information
Architecture:
Baylor College of Medicine recently laid out their “strategic plan” in which they plan to expand at a rate comparable to other research schools in the country. They felt they were not staying competitive and want to remain as one of the top schools. Their plan is to expand their research programs to retain the quality researchers they have and allow them to recruit other top researchers. The first part of their “strategic plan” was to construct a new research tower.
The Albert and Margaret Alkek Foundation donated $31.25 million dollars to the college for construction of the new tower. For their donation the research tower shall be known as the Margaret M. Alkek Building for Biomedical Research. This is the largest donation Baylor College of Medicine has ever received to fund biomedical research. The research tower promises to have top of the line facilities that can accommodate the following programs; cardiovascular sciences, diabetes and metabolic disease, cancer, pharmacogenomics, imaging, informatics, and proteomics.
The Margaret M. Alkek Building for Biomedical Research is to be constructed at One Baylor Plaza between the existing Jewish Institute for Medical Research and Texas Medical Center Garage #6. The building will be built on top of a subterranean research facility (referred to as TMF, Transgenic Mouse Facility) and use the existing foundation. The 8-story research tower will contain 5 floors (levels 4-8) of space with identical floor plans, with a majority of the space used for laboratory research and some office space. The office and laboratory spaces on these floors are divided by the main corridor, which is pressurized and contains the elevator systems at the north end of this corridor. Level 3 contains a majority of the mechanical equipment such as air handling units, pumps, heat exchangers, steam generators, etc, as well as the electrical equipment for the building. Levels 1 and 2 will house the animal research facilities. Level 2 is strictly animal housing units and animal research space. Level 1 contains the lobby to the Research tower and a small amount of office space. The rest of level 1 is made up of vivarium space and the animal facility cage wash takes up the majority of space on level 1.
Building Envelope:
The exterior walls are a curtain wall design. There are 3 types of glass used along the exterior; spandrel glazing, vision glazing and insulated glass. Along the north side of the building the third level that contains all the mechanical systems has metal louvers for the length of the building. On the east elevation from the first to the fourth floor the building is connected to the adjacent parking deck. The elevator/stairwell area that sticks out from the building on the north side has lime stone paneling. And around the entire building metal composite paneling is used in spots.
Construction:
The Research Tower is to be constructed on top of an existing subterranean research facility. Demolition will take place to incorporate the new research tower into the existing parking garage that it will be adjacent to. A new fuel oil tank is to be installed to supply the research tower’s emergency generator. As well as a chiller in the existing research facility has to be replaced to handle more of a load. Construction is set to start in October of 2005 with substantial completion scheduled for late 2007.
Zoning and Historical:
Research tower is being constructed on top of an existing subterranean structure and on BCM’s existing campus so there are no zoning issues to address.
Major National Codes:
IBC (w/ Houston Amendments)
NFPA
NEC
Mechanical:
The research tower is being built into the existing campus so the building utilizes the campus chilled water system and campus steam system. Construction of the new research tower required BCM to replace one of the existing 800 ton chillers in the North Campus chiller plant with a 1300 ton centrifugal chiller to accommodate the extra load from the new research tower. The campus chilled water is pumped into a plate and frame heat exchanger which is responsible for the process chilled water in the tower. The campus steam system runs into 3 shell & tube clean steam generators which produce the steam needed in the building for process and humidification. A portion of the steam generated within the building is sent to 2 shell & tube heat exchangers which generate the hot water for the building which feeds heating coils in the air handling units as well as all reheat coils.
There are 12 air handlers in total that supply the tower. Of the 12 air handlers 10 are located in the level 3 mechanical space and the other 2 are located on the roof. On the roof there is a 15,000 cfm and 10,000 cfm air handler which serves to pressurize the north and south stairwells, respectively. 4 25,000 cfm air handlers service the vivarium spaces, office and lab spaces on levels 1 and 2. There are 2 10,000 cfm air handlers that serve the level 3 mechanical space. The final 4 air handlers are 50,000 cfm and serve the main lab and office spaces on floors 4-8. Fan coil units are used in the emergency electrical rooms, elevator equipment room and in the eastern corridors on levels 4-8.
Levels 1 & 2 contain all of the animal research facilities and vivarium space. Level 2 is constant volume 100% outdoor air, as it contains no office space and all vivarium and research spaces are constant volume and exhausted through fume hoods and exhaust fans located on the roof (via exhaust risers). Level 1 contains the lobby of the research tower. This lobby space and the attached corridor are variable volume spaces and are the only spaces on level 1 in which the air is returned instead of exhausted. All the vivarium spaces and animal research spaces on level 1 are constant volume and exhausted similar to level 2. The animal facility cagewash on level 1 is variable volume and is exhausted through exhaust diffusers as well as exhaust hoods. There is office space on level 1 which is variable volume however the air in this space is also exhausted and not returned. There are many vestibules which separate the “dirty” and “sterile” sides of level 1 which is divided by the cagewash. The “dirty” side is the office side and also where dirty cages are brought into the cagewash to be cleaned and the sterile side is the opposite side of the building where the sterile cages are removed from the cage wash.
Level 3 has only a few spaces to consider. In the northeastern corner of the building there is some storage space, corridor, glass wash and equipment service area that needs to be considers for heating and cooling. These spaces are all constant volume and exhausted. The rest of the space on level 3 is the mechanical area containing a majority of the air handlers. There are louvers along the north side of the building that allow for outdoor air to come in and feed the air handlers.
On levels 4-8 the research laboratories are variable volume, as are the office spaces on the opposite side of the floors. However not all spaces on levels 4-8 are variable volume there are a some laboratory support spaces that are constant volume, typically the presence of a fume hood will indicate constant volume. The air within the laboratory and laboratory support spaces is exhausted through exhaust fans located on the roof via exhaust risers or through fume hoods that also exhaust through the roof. The laboratory and office spaces on levels 4-8 are separated by a pressurized corridor/interaction space. Air in the office side and separating corridor/interaction space is returned.
Electrical/Lighting:
A Double Ended unit substation will be installed in the tower to supply the tower and backfeed the subterranean research facility. The substation is rated at 4.16 kW primary – 277/480V, 3-phase, 4 wire, 60hz secondary. Each lab floor has a 480 to 208/120V stepdown. An emergency generator will be connected to the tower and installed in the near by on the lower level of the Texas Medical Center Garage #6.The emergency generator shall be able to provide 1,500 kW and is fed from a 8000 gallon fuel oil tank. The generator is connected to the fire pump, elevators and other essential components in the case of an emergency.
All lighting in the building spaces (lab, vivarium, office space, stairwells, and corridors) is fluorescent lighting. The only exceptions to this are in level 3 mechanical there is alludescent lighting and in levels 4-8 there are incandescent lighting in the conference room in the office side of the building. Lighting levels in all the spaces were required to meet Baylor College of Medicine guidelines as well as Illuminating Engineering Society’s recommendations.
Structural:
The Margaret M. Alkek Building for Biomedical Research is being built on a drilled pier foundation and utilizing an existing foundation by underpinning its piers. The first elevated level is supported with one-way concrete pan joists framing into massive pre-tensioned concrete transfer girders. These girders are utilized to accommodate the mismatched existing and new column grids. Levels 2-8 are typical wide flange composite steel construction. Steel post-up columns support levels 2-8 and rest on the transfer girders. The slab is 3- 1/2” lightweight concrete on 3” 20 gage composite metal deck. Most beams are W21x44 while most girders are W36x135. The lateral force resisting system is a combination of moment frames and braced frames in a staggered configuration. The frames are located along grid lines D and E, in the towers core. The mechanical platform on the roof is framed out of HSS tubes.
Fire Protection:
Building is fully sprinklered based on NFPA 13, latest edition. Sprinkler spacing will be hazard group 1 occupancy for mechanical, laboratories and storage space and light hazard group occupancy for offices, corridor and toilet rooms. In the basement crawl space is a 5000 gallon fire protection break tank, and the jockey and fire pumps.
Plumbing:
The research tower has an extensive plumbing system to support the lab and vivarium spaces. The vivarium has an animal water system that consists of two 600 gallon storage tanks, a pressurized 86 gallon storage tank and a few other tanks for treating the water. The building connects to the main water loop for domestic water use throughout the building. There is a low zone booster pump (for levels 1-3) and a high zone booster pump (for levels 4-8). The booster pumps pump up to the 3rd level where steam fired water heaters create the hot water for the building and is then sent either back to levels 1-3 or up to levels 4-8. Water purification equipment is on the 3rd floor creating Reverse Osmosis Deionized (RODI) water which is then pumped to the clean steam generator on level 3 for steam creation or to tunnel washers, glass washers, or up to the lab space for their use. There is also a lab waste which is treated in the basement level and ejected to the city sewer. The final element of the extensive piping system is natural gas and CO2 which is piped up to the lab spaces on levels 4-8 for use in experiments and research.
Transportation:
The building is located right next to a parking garage which allows for easy vehicular access. Once inside the building there is a stair case on the eastside of the building. On the northern side there is a bank of 3 elevators that service the entire building as well as another set of stairs.
Special Systems:
n/a