rrrr
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Well, actually, it was more than a few years.
I was digging through some old files and found this red tag from a City of Dallas electrical inspector, issued in January 2000. I've saved it all these years because it still makes me laugh when I see it.
The tag was issued at a data center I was building in the Infomart, a 1.5 million square foot building which was one of the first "colocation hotels" in Dallas. It had started out in the 80s as a technology center, with showcase offices for many large clients like Exxon/Mobil, Hewlett Packard, IBM, etc., and by 2000 it was being repurposed as primarily a data center property. I built out about 150,000 SF of data center space in the building, with the individual data centers having roughly 10 Mw electrical services along with several 2 Mw gensets and several Mw of UPS capacity.
Since then the building has been maxed out, and was sold for $800 million in 2018. Last week Equinix Data Centers announced they are building a new $140 million structure in the Infomart's parking area, which will mimic the original design and contain 100% data center space.
Anyway, my electrical contractor had installed some temporary runs of 1100 KCMIL DLO cable to power up a data center space under construction, because the 4160V automatic transfer switches were delayed in shipping, and we had to light up the space so hardware installation could begin. The temporary work was a little too primitive for the inspector's taste. It was pretty funny when it was found on the front door of the space.
I went looking for some photos of the Infomart to see if there were any online of work that I did.
I found this photo. In 2000, my company built out two 15,000 SF data centers in the building. Each data center had about 300 tons of dedicated computer room A/C units, and they used a glycol loop for heat rejection. I did the engineering and design of the two big drycooler platforms in the foreground, and my CAD operators created the structural drawings. I contracted with a steel fabricator in Houston to build the platforms. After fabrication, all of the steel was hot dip galvanized. The platforms were shipped to Dallas, and we set them on the roof with a 350 ton mobile crane, Both platforms were completed without any field rework, they were connected to the existing steel columns just under the roofing with a bolted splice plate connection.
Infomart Wiki page:
The Infomart is one of the largest buildings in Dallas, Texas (USA). It is the world's first and only information processing marketing center.[1]
It is located at 1950 N. Stemmons Freeway in the Market Center neighborhood between Oak Lawn and Interstate 35E near downtown. It is served by DART's Market Center Station.
History
The $85 million Infomart was opened as part of Trammell Crow's Dallas Market Center in 1985 on the site of the P.C. Cobb Stadium.[2] It was built to serve the needs of information technology companies and provide an environment that would stimulate growth. After several years as a permanent trade show for information technology vendors, the building was sold in 1999 and 2006.[3] The building was purchased by ASB Real Estate and currently serves as a technology office and data center, home to more than 110 technology and telecommunications companies.[4] The property and management team were recently merged with another Data Center operator, Fortune Data Centers, to create a national operator. The combined entity will operate under the name Infomart Data Centers.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Infomart hosted combined monthly meetings of many Dallas-area computer user groups, including those for the Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, Atari ST, and Commodore Amiga.
In April 2018, ASB sold the Infomart building and their data centers located in the building to Equinix Inc for $800 million.
On February 20, 2020, Equinix Data Centers announced they intend to construct a new data center building in the parking lot area of the Infomart, with an estimated construction cost of $140 million.
I was digging through some old files and found this red tag from a City of Dallas electrical inspector, issued in January 2000. I've saved it all these years because it still makes me laugh when I see it.
The tag was issued at a data center I was building in the Infomart, a 1.5 million square foot building which was one of the first "colocation hotels" in Dallas. It had started out in the 80s as a technology center, with showcase offices for many large clients like Exxon/Mobil, Hewlett Packard, IBM, etc., and by 2000 it was being repurposed as primarily a data center property. I built out about 150,000 SF of data center space in the building, with the individual data centers having roughly 10 Mw electrical services along with several 2 Mw gensets and several Mw of UPS capacity.
Since then the building has been maxed out, and was sold for $800 million in 2018. Last week Equinix Data Centers announced they are building a new $140 million structure in the Infomart's parking area, which will mimic the original design and contain 100% data center space.
Anyway, my electrical contractor had installed some temporary runs of 1100 KCMIL DLO cable to power up a data center space under construction, because the 4160V automatic transfer switches were delayed in shipping, and we had to light up the space so hardware installation could begin. The temporary work was a little too primitive for the inspector's taste. It was pretty funny when it was found on the front door of the space.
I went looking for some photos of the Infomart to see if there were any online of work that I did.
I found this photo. In 2000, my company built out two 15,000 SF data centers in the building. Each data center had about 300 tons of dedicated computer room A/C units, and they used a glycol loop for heat rejection. I did the engineering and design of the two big drycooler platforms in the foreground, and my CAD operators created the structural drawings. I contracted with a steel fabricator in Houston to build the platforms. After fabrication, all of the steel was hot dip galvanized. The platforms were shipped to Dallas, and we set them on the roof with a 350 ton mobile crane, Both platforms were completed without any field rework, they were connected to the existing steel columns just under the roofing with a bolted splice plate connection.
Infomart Wiki page:
The Infomart is one of the largest buildings in Dallas, Texas (USA). It is the world's first and only information processing marketing center.[1]
It is located at 1950 N. Stemmons Freeway in the Market Center neighborhood between Oak Lawn and Interstate 35E near downtown. It is served by DART's Market Center Station.
History
The $85 million Infomart was opened as part of Trammell Crow's Dallas Market Center in 1985 on the site of the P.C. Cobb Stadium.[2] It was built to serve the needs of information technology companies and provide an environment that would stimulate growth. After several years as a permanent trade show for information technology vendors, the building was sold in 1999 and 2006.[3] The building was purchased by ASB Real Estate and currently serves as a technology office and data center, home to more than 110 technology and telecommunications companies.[4] The property and management team were recently merged with another Data Center operator, Fortune Data Centers, to create a national operator. The combined entity will operate under the name Infomart Data Centers.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Infomart hosted combined monthly meetings of many Dallas-area computer user groups, including those for the Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, Atari ST, and Commodore Amiga.
In April 2018, ASB sold the Infomart building and their data centers located in the building to Equinix Inc for $800 million.
On February 20, 2020, Equinix Data Centers announced they intend to construct a new data center building in the parking lot area of the Infomart, with an estimated construction cost of $140 million.
