Expansion Project Doubles Los Angeles Area Cabinet Capacity for Worldwide Market Leader and Provider of Network-Neutral Data Centers and Internet Exchange Services

In April, DPR delivered a complex, fast-tracked renovation of a large-scale data center for repeat customer, Equinix, in El Segundo, CA, two days early, on budget and with zero defects. More than doubling the size of the worldwide market leader’s Los Angeles area cabinet capacity, the project required the team to devise solutions to a host of technical challenges posed by the need to convert, or “Equinize,” an existing data center space into the very detailed specifications of Equinix’s high-performance centers throughout the U.S. and Asia-Pacific.

Distinctive Model

Designed by architect RTKL of Washington, D.C., the El Segundo data center represents Equinix’s third Internet Business Exchange™(IBX®) in the Los Angeles area and incorporates the company’s unique architectural environment, which includes:

• The patented IBX cabling infrastructure to help minimize interference problems, maintain an orderly cable distribution structure and ensure ease of installing and accessing interconnections through the use of multi-colored trays and extensive blue-steel tubing.
• An uninterrupted power supply (UPS) system and emergency backup diesel generators with built-in redundancy.
• Private and shared caged areas configured with exposed overhead cable distribution systems.
• Redundant HVAC and fire detection and suppression systems, as well as locationspecific seismic compliance structural systems.
• Modern high-finish lobby, conference and office areas.

DPR’s second project for Equinix in Southern California, the 80,000-sq.-ft. renovation was completed in less than five months and involved extensive ceiling demolition, installation of steel hallway and cable tray supports, a full remodel of the center’s entryway and office spaces and upgrades of the electrical and mechanical systems.

Technically Demanding

One of the major challenges the DPR team faced was integrating Equinix’s distinctive blue-steel tubing, which carries cable tray systems for the power, phones, fiber optics, AC-DC and security components, into the existing utilities. More than 1,000 individual pieces of the steel tubes needed to be erected, comprising not only the cable trays but also supports and aisleways, according to DPR Project Manager Michele Blomquist.

“It was very complicated to try to get that steel to land someplace where it was sitting on concrete rather than in the middle of an existing utility or the chilled water system that was supplying an existing unit,” said Blomquist. “We had to look ahead and do a lot of reconnaissance and surveying to accommodate the best method.” DPR worked with the structural engineer and identified five different scenarios that were continually encountered and devised acceptable solutions for each situation, creating a type of “bridge” system to span over the top of existing infrastructure.

The ceiling demolition and colocation area upgrades also had to be performed over an existing three-foothigh raised floor, which presented challenges relative to clean construction, safety and the limited weight bearing capacity of the raised floor, among other things. The team also had to reconfigure some of the switch gear for the existing utility supplier to accommodate the owner’s need for redundancies of all major systems and ensure an uninterrupted power supply to the building at all times.

Delivering Results

Despite facing those and other technical challenges, as well as late permitting issues, the team understood the importance of meeting the fasttrack completion schedule. New end-users of the data center were continually signing up to rent space in the building, and virtually all needed to move in as soon as possible. Project Manager John Foran notes that DPR was able to accommodate early move in for one tenant prior to overall completion. The end result was a client who has indicated a high level of satisfaction with DPR’s ability to maintain top quality on the project, while completing it ahead of schedule, without a safety incident, and even returning savings to the owner.