Express Scripts Office and Data Center – Mission Critical

This project created a new data center in Express Scripts’ new 4-story office building.
—

The project required detailed collaboration with core & shell architect (Lamar Johnson Collaborative), the tenant improvement architect (NELSON) and Clayco, to deliver the data center on a very accelerated schedule.

This data center project consisted of 13,500 square feet of total area including approximately 6,000 square feet of white space. The mechanical and electrical systems were designed to achieve a concurrently maintainable infrastructure for 150 watts per square foot power density; half of the area was built-out as part of the initial construction.

One 1,000 kW and one 2,500 kW diesel generator were installed as part of the initial construction, with provisions for a future 1,000 kW generator. The generators were installed in outdoor, walk-in enclosures. Two 600 kVA UPS modules were installed as part of the initial construction, with provisions for a future 600 kVA UPS module. Static transfer switches were installed to create a ‘catcher block’ type architecture to increase energy efficiency.

A stand-alone chilled water system was designed with outdoor air cooled chillers with integral water side economizers for efficient and reliable winter operations. Two 200 ton chillers were installed as part of the initial construction, with provisions for a future 200 ton chiller. The chilled water distribution was as a loop to allow all areas of the piping system to be isolation and drained without affecting the operation of the data center. Computer room AC unit were designed with N+33% redundancy. Building automation system controls were designed to achieve redundancy.

The data center area utilized a 36” high raised floor with early warning smoke detection and a preaction type fire suppression system. All computer room AC units and electrical distribution panels were located outside of the data center in mechanical corridors. Data center heat rejection included hot aisle containment.

CLIENT

Express Scripts

LOCATION

St. Louis, Missouri

SIZE

234,000 SF building / 13,500 SF data center / 6,000 SF data center white space

KEY FACTS

• Architect: Lamar Johnson Collaborative / NELSON
• Value: $70 Million Total Contract / $7 Million Data Center

AWARDS

LEED CS V2.0 Certified

INTEGRATED BY DESIGN

Related Projects

Magellan Health Services Data Center

Maryland Heights, Missouri

Mary Kay Data Center

Hoffman Estates, Illinois

NCSA Petascale Computing Facility – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Champaign, Illinois

Confidential Client – Data Center