Designing for Flexibility on a Budget: Renovation of the Historic Radio Building for the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado
Adam Denmark, SmithGroupJJR
Eric Soladay, P.E., Integral Group
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Building 1 Renovation (B1-R) project in Boulder, Colorado, consists of approximately 200,000 square feet of existing office and laboratory space. The federally funded project is a deep renovation with structural upgrades, an entirely new building envelope, new laboratory facilities, and a full MEP upgrade that is targeting LEED® Gold certification within very tight budget constraints. NIST has agreed to participate as a Labs21 Partner; the team has managed to include 12 of the 15 Labs21 Best Practice Guidelines within the existing project budget and is currently exceeding ASHRAE 90.1 by 35 percent. Through the LEED certification process, the team will also be pursuing several of the Labs21 Environmental Performance Criteria credits to achieve a LEED Innovation in Design credit.
A primary objective of the project is to provide a flexible design that allows for maximizing the prime on-grade laboratory space. As research changes over time, the laboratories, and the systems serving them, must be able to adapt. To this end, a modular "plug and play" type approach utilizing distributed fan coil units (sized for a local 20 air changes per hour for high efficiency filtration laboratories) is included in the design. Highly reliable motorized impellers, used extensively throughout critical facilities, provide variable flow and ultra efficient airflow for cleanliness and temperature stability in the laboratory testing and research environment.
The project was designed using Autodesk Revit 2012, which allowed for early three-dimensional presentation of the design intent to NIST and the users. This improved coordination allowed the owners to make more informed decisions on what they were "buying." This created a graphically intense representation of the owners' new space, transforming their 1960s building into a state-of-the-art testing and research laboratory.
Due to the budgetary constraints, design options have been extensively vetted through life-cycle cost modeling with the assistance of deep whole building energy simulation of the various design options at each stage of the design. The energy analyses not only verified that the design was exceeding the owner's targets, but more importantly, the energy analysis was carried out as part of the design process and informed the key options that were promoted at the concept level to the owner. As cost estimates were developed, iterations of the life-cycle cost model were updated to insure that cost-effective decisions were being made.
The project is also pursuing utility incentives through the local utility company to help offset the first cost of the key energy efficiency options.
Biographies:
Adam Denmark is a principal at SmithGroupJJR. He has 15 years of targeted experience in all project phases of laboratory design and construction. He serves as a laboratory planning and design architect at SmithGroupJJR, working as a liaison with the owner, user groups, and the design team. Denmark's areas of expertise include forensic science and medicine, research, and Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) facility design.
His recent work includes facilities for research, material analysis, forensic science and medicine, mass casualty, and BSL units on projects such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology Building 1 Renovation in Boulder, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory Energy Systems Integration Facility in Golden, the Ontario Forensic Services and Coroner's Complex, New Mexico Scientific Laboratories, the Denver Police Department Crime Laboratory, the United States Customs and Border Patrol Southwest Regional Science Center in Houston, and the Arizona Biomedical Collaborative.
Mr. Denmark is a frequent author and speaker and has presented at conferences such as the R&D Laboratory Design Conference, the Centers for Disease Control's International Symposium on Biosafety, Tradelines International Conference on Research Facilities, the Canadian Biosafety Symposium, and the National Association of Medical Examiners Annual Meeting.
Eric Soladay is an innovative, collaborative, and goal-oriented mechanical engineer responsible for the procurement, management, and design of building engineering system projects. With a focus on sustainable and efficient systems, and cost- and maintenance-conscious designs, Mr. Soladay brings a calm and reliable creativity to the art of engineering the built environment. As associate principal and science and technology team manager, Mr. Soladay is responsible for the design of critical environment projects. As project manager and mechanical engineer of record at Integral Group, he has led several significant projects, including the first LEED Platinum certified retrofit of a historical laboratory building for the Linde + Robinson Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology; the Energy Systems Integration Facility at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the most energy-efficient data center in North America with a power usage effectiveness of 1.05; and the net zero energy headquarters building for the Packard Foundation.