YATES IS COMPLETING CENTURYLINK S NEW TECHNOLOGY CENTER OF EXCELLENCE. BY RUSS GAGER

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1 Commercial YATES CONSTRUCTION CENTURYLINK TECHNOLOGY CENTER OF EXCELLENCE Future Tech YATES IS COMPLETING CENTURYLINK S NEW TECHNOLOGY CENTER OF EXCELLENCE. BY RUSS GAGER Technology is a major driver of the U.S. economy, and contributing to that growth is the new Technology Center of Excellence being completed for CenturyLink next to its headquarters in Monroe, La. The third-largest telecommunications company in the United States, CenturyLink hosts IT solutions for enterprise customers and provides cloud infrastructure in the network services market. Constructing the futuristic, three-story, 325,000-square-foot facility has been a challenging, fast-track project for construction manager Yates Construction. It s quite unique, Project Executive Cleet McHenry declares. It s not a typical building everything slopes and curves. We had a site package and a steel package that came out initially to get started with the foundations 24 and steel. The interior package came along after that. Additional construction challenges were the weather. We ve had two of the worst winters we ve had in a long time, McHenry laments. Our biggest obstacle was just the weather. It was really colder and wetter than normal. Despite these challenges, when construction of the project began in March 2013, Yates Construction had no lost man-hours due to accidents or injuries on the job, and the ribbon-cutting was held on schedule on March 26. Yates Construction self-performed some minor activities such as assisting with concrete, erosion control and site maintenance, but hired approximately 35 subcontractors 60 percent of whom were local to work on the technology center. Until summer, the finishing touches are being put on the building. The CenturyLink Technology Center of Excellence includes a technology research and development lab, a network opera- Yates Construction CenturyLink Technology Center of Excellence Location: Monroe, La. Employees onsite at peak: 12 Scope of work: Technology center It s not a typical building everythingslopes and curves. Cleet McHenry, project executive

2 More than 1,700 augur cast pilings were driven for the center and a five-story concrete parking garage next to it that handles 1,202 vehicles. Adjacent to the garage is a separate mechanical building that houses the chillers, cooling towers, back-up electrical generators and other equipment. This design eliminates the need for roof-mounted mechanical equipment. The center s concrete foundation stabilizes its steel structure and features a concrete deck flooring system. Approximately 60 percent of the exterior is an insulated curved aluminum panel system and 40 percent is curved curtainwall that gives a futuristic feel to the building and its sloped roof. Network Lab The second floor of the center is approximately 36,000 square feet that is dedicated Yates is happy to work on the CenturyLink Technology Center of Excellence with its unique design. tions center and collaborative office and meeting space. It also includes a customer experience center where the company s latest offerings will be demonstrated, along with an executive briefing center that will enable sales and support teams to present solutions to current and prospective customers challenges. Innovation Hub In the center, employees with skills in networking, the cloud, information technology and other areas will work together to create innovative products and services for CenturyLink s customers. They will have unique workspace options that will enable them to collaborate and innovate anywhere on the campus through voice-over-internet Protocol service. The company is transitioning from a traditional network communications provider to an integrated provider of advanced IP-enabled network, cloud, hosting and IT services. CenturyLink considers the Technology Center of Excellence to be key to accomplishing this transition successfully. 25 JULY/AUGUST 2015 CONSTRUCTION-TODAY.COM

3 Commercial YATES CONSTRUCTION CENTURYLINK TECHNOLOGY CENTER OF EXCELLENCE» The technology center s concrete foundation stabilizes its steel structure. to the network lab, which has a capacity of 800 racks, each of which will hold multiple servers. The floor is raised two feet above the actual floor to allow the routing of communication cables, electricity and room for ventilation. When the temperature is right on the outside, the lab will circulate 100 percent of outside fresh air, McHenry says. When the temperature outside is 55 degrees and the humidity is right, they ll utilize that to cool the lab. Once it is fully occupied, keeping it cool will be a huge load. The network operations center is also on the second floor. It can seat up to 160 people and has a large wall covered with flat screen displays that monitor the entire computer network. remembers. We had to get the zoning and planning for it. The street was removed and the 365,000-square-foot corporate headquarters connected to the new technology center with a circle-shaped plaza 26 Move a Street The CenturyLink Technology Center of Excellence has been built in a portion of a street, a pecan grove and a small parking lot. We had to basically go in and move a half-mile-long city street, McHenry

4 that measures approximately 50,000 square feet or 2.2 acres and is covered with brick pavers. There s about 17,500 square feet of water with 11 fountains in it, McHenry says. To make way for the technology center, approximately 82 pecan trees were harvested and milled locally. This yielded approximately 20,000 square feet of lumber, from which veneer paneling and flooring, as well as solid material for coffee bar countertops throughout the facility, were produced. This is a project that will win numerous national awards for design. We ended up with 72,000 3-inch pecan, tongue-and-groove veneer panels with a birch backer on it, McHenry says. Approximately 18,000 square feet of the paneling covers walls throughout the center, except for 1,100 square feet, which was used as a border in the executive briefing conference room around a large carpet inlay under the conference tables. The landscape design for the campus included planting a new tree for each tree that was removed, and more than 100 trees have been planted, along with other vegetation. LEED Silver The architectural firm of Moody Nolan designed the CenturyLink Technology Center of Excellence to aim for LEED Silver certification. It features a mixture of 28 varieties of slow-growing The new CenturyLink structure has been designed to have a lot of energy-saving features. 27 JULY/AUGUST 2015 CONSTRUCTION-TODAY.COM

5 The technology center will employ a daylight harvesting system to help it save energy. Commercial YATES CONSTRUCTION CENTURYLINK TECHNOLOGY CENTER OF EXCELLENCE vegetation that bloom throughout the year on the lower roof along with a white membrane on the upper roof. These roof surfaces are visible from the adjacent existing headquarters facility and provide a striking visual appearance along with emphasizing the sustainable features of the two materials. Other energy-saving features include tankless, point-of-source 28 hot water heating in restrooms and break rooms, smart building controls for mechanical and electrical systems, LED lighting, intelligent electrochromic windows, audio/visual equipment, security devices, uninterruptible power supplies and generator backup systems. The carpeting and systems furniture are 100 percent recyclable. McHenry attributes the single-biggest energy savings to the 37,000 square feet of electrochromic glass, which CenturyLink calculates is the single-largest installation of that glass in the country. It changes tinting based on the angle of the sun and the time of day. It also helps out on the radiant heat inside the building and helps control the lighting, McHenry says. If you have as much glass as we have here, if it s really bright outside, it s hard to work in here. The tinting helps with the glare of the sun. The electrochromic glass leverages nanotechnology and pre-programmed intelligence to tint automatically in response to outside conditions and user preferences, eliminating the need for blinds or shades. Its manufacturer reports it has been shown to reduce lighting, heating and cooling loads in typical buildings by 20 percent or more. The technology center s daylight harvesting system features dimmable ballasts, which allow the building to save energy. The lighting design reportedly optimizes energy performance by 20 percent over the current energy code. High-performance luminaries and daylight harvesting will contribute to reductions in energy-use goals. Building occupants have control of their environment through low-voltage controls within the space as well as task lighting. Each floor of the technology center has dedicated storage areas for recycling glass, plastic, metal and paper. Items from these collection points will be gathered weekly, and a similar recycling program will be established in the current headquarters building. This is a project that will win numerous national awards for design, McHenry predicts. It s really unique, and we want to make sure we do it justice.