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January 27, 2020

Best in state: Gold award
Successful Fulfillment of Client/Owner Needs

Stantec Consulting Services

Image courtesy of Stantec
The layout of the Gates Center’s trapezoidal-shaped electrical room was a challenge for the design team.

Project: Bill & Melinda Gates Center for Computer Science and Engineering
Client: University of Washington

The focus of Stantec’s design of a power system for the new Gates Center for Computer Science and Engineering was reliability and redundancy.

While the classrooms serve as traditional teaching spaces, the labs within the Gates Center hold the research of hundreds of students and require a higher level of reliability than a typical building. Stantec was challenged to provide an appropriate electrical service configuration that didn’t quite fit within the University of Washington’s prescriptive design standards.

To serve the goals of the project and provide the most economical, reliable and space-considerate power system, Stantec stepped outside the university’s typical service configurations. The team pitched the owner the idea of a simple, two-source spot network solution that provided high reliability and utilized existing nearby campus primary feeders instead of pulling an additional third feeder.

This reduced the electrical room size by approximately 600 square feet. This is equivalent to the size of the wet laboratory, three faculty offices or a small student workroom in the building. Being able to give that space back to the students and faculty was a big win.

The layout of the electrical room was a particular challenge for the design team. The building is not a traditional shape, and many of the rooms are atypical shapes, including the trapezoidal-shaped electrical room. Although the two-source spot network service reduced space requirements, the code-required clearances around electrical equipment needed to have a path for equipment removal.

Stantec had to carefully consider how the room would be laid out, Additionally, the room is located below a coffee shop and between a mechanical room and large classroom, resulting in piping and ductwork to route through the limited floor space where electrical equipment could be located. The use of 3D modeling facilitated a fully coordinated MEP design within the uniquely shaped space.


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