Eagle Mountain Data Center
When one of North America’s largest tech companies broke ground on a $1.8 billion, 4 million sq. ft. data center project in the remote hills of Utah, they called GNB to provide buildings that would serve as crafts commons for the thousands of construction crew members onsite.
Once all fire-code information and permits had been obtained, our team of engineers got to work designing the ideal structures for the site. Assembly-style buildings were needed to accommodate morning bend-and-stretch meetings with up to 600 people – while also functioning as lunch rooms, fitness centers, Shark Tank-style business pitch centers, and COVID-19 screening areas. These buildings needed to be insulated in order to provide shelter against the elements year-round: extremely hot temperatures and high winds in the summer months, and heavy snowfall and subzero temperatures in the winter. Smaller, low-hazard structures were also required for warehouse purposes.
On top of these requirements, construction crews working on the data center were experiencing inclement weather delays – namely, the high winds and ensuing fine dust that settled on nearly every surface. The typical poly sheeting used to “protect” construction sites from the elements was not holding up.
Within a six-week turnaround, GNB had designed, shipped, and installed six initial structures – each 72’ in height and 140’ wide – to Eagle Mountain, Utah. A total of 131,000 sq. ft. of work space was ready to be used by the various trades crews. To eliminate weather-related construction delays, our proprietary Reusable Weather Enclosure System (RWES) was also deployed on site. These purposefully-designed flexible panels tightly fit around construction areas, keeping out dirt, wind, and moisture, while offering sufficient lighting and manual access.
Phase 1 of the project was such a success that we were asked to sign on for a further five phases of the construction process. We have since provided 13 total buildings to the Eagle Mountain site, and following the Utah project, we were awarded similar projects in Illinois, Oregon, Georgia, and Tennessee – helping speed up construction and ensure that thousands of staff had high-quality, code-standard buildings in which to work safely.
