Our client
Digital Realty is the world’s largest full-scale data center provider. Operating a data center in Atlanta—home to the southeast’s largest concentration of telecommunications companies, sitting atop most of the fiber connecting New York and Florida—was a no-brainer. Atlanta serves as a hub for transportation and global logistics, and has been named the nation’s second most wired city. The location offers businesses more choices for carrier-neutral interconnection, colocation, and data center access than any other location in the region.
Project highlights
Their challenge
This 160,000-square-foot project repurposed a 1950s building formerly owned by Telx and originally designed to serve as a printing press and bomb shelter. This original design made the structure ideal to carry the significant weight of a data colocation center. Salas O’Brien embraced the particular challenges the project presented, tailoring designs and finding ways to balance project cost, maintenance, and performance.
Our solution
Our team provided MEP and fire protection engineering as well as design-build assessment and budget assistance. The finished data center is supported by five transformers with power supplied by multiple power substations and 14 generators with more than 10,000 gallons of fuel storage. The mechanical system includes computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units served by a water fluid cooler system. The fire protection system includes a dry pipe pre-action system throughout the mission-critical area and has a redundant release protocol preventing accidental discharge.
The results
The result of our work on this project was an overwhelming success, and it has provided Digital Realty with a building fortified enough to meet the demands of a bright, productive future.
