DPR Construction recently celebrated the topping out of Meta’s new data center in Gallatin, Tennessee. Members of Meta (formerly Facebook), the DPR Construction project team and their trade partners gathered together for a traditional topping-out ceremony as the building’s final steel beam was hoisted into place.

Sitting on over 900 acres, the two building data center campus will encompass nearly one million square feet of data center and administrative space. Its completion will mark Meta's 13th data center in the U.S. and 17th worldwide.

"Our team has a lot of pride working on a project of this magnitude and importance to the local community,” said Lance Couch, DPR project executive. “In addition to adding to Meta’s portfolio of world-class data centers, we are energizing the local economy with job creation throughout construction and beyond.”

With some of the most energy-efficient data centers in the world, Meta prioritizes sustainability. The Gallatin Data Center will be fueled entirely by renewable energy, use 80% less water than a typical data center and will not contain any air-conditioning units. A combination of renewable energy, water and a fan system will be used to bring in cool air while collecting and repurposing hot air from the equipment to maintain a comfortable temperature inside the building.

“The DPR Construction project team utilized a rock crusher to recycle the area’s natural stone, processing over one million tons of rock to supply all the gravel and rock for the project. By doing so, we eliminated the need to bring in additional resources, cutting down on cost, reducing waste and eliminating road congestion in the community,” said Couch.

The campus is currently on track for LEED Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.

The two-story Meta Gallatin Data Center is comprised of two buildings which are joined together in an “H” configuration. Upon completion in late 2023, it will house administrative space and climate-controlled rooms containing servers, routers, firewalls and other electrical equipment.