University of California San Diego
San Diego Supercomputer Expansion
San Diego, Calif.
Barnhart Balfour Beatty provided general contracting services to the University of California San Diego to expand the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) by 80,000 square feet. The SDSC is located in the heart of the university campus.
The expansion has doubled the size of the national science, engineering and technology center, adding additional data space to store trillions of bytes of information and powerful supercomputers, and has more than 400 professional multidisciplinary staff members.
The Supercomputer Center is one of the largest storage resources in the country, and offers more than 25 petabytes of tape storage, three petabytes of disk storage and nearly five megawatts of power – enough to provide power to five thousand homes. The project included expansion of the machine room, a new high-tech visualization center, offices, meeting rooms, and a 200-seat auditorium.
A highlight of the project is the Liebert/Knurr rack system called CoolFlex, which separates the cold air that cools the computer equipment from the hot air exhausted by the computers, and is the first-of-its-kind in the United States. In addition, a natural gas cogeneration facility provides power to the datacenter and steam to drive the chilled water plant.
The SDSC is the University of California San Diego’s first LEED experimental building, and is LEED Silver equivalent using the university’s standards. The university is also using the Supercomputer Center Expansion as a prototype for future LEED buildings on campus.
The project also garnered an award from the Higher Education Energy Partnership in 2005, for its innovative HVAC systems. The HVAC system was designed to accommodate occupants’ desire for operable windows while remaining energy efficient, and uses over 40% less energy than a Title 24 baseline building. In addition to obtaining accolades for its energy-efficient HVAC system, this project featured a construction debris recycling program with EDCO disposal. Barnhart helped reduce construction debris and achieved over 50% diversion from landfills. The recycling program provided EDCO recycling bins throughout the site, and the university received cash rebates as debris was collected.
Quick Facts
| CLIENT: | University of California San Diego |
| ARCHITECT: | Esherick Homsey Dodge & Davis |
| PROJECT SIZE: | 80,000 SF |
| CONSTRUCTION COST: |
$30.9 Million |
Project Awards
- 2009 Build San Diego Merit Award, Associated General Contractors, San Diego Chapter