Data Center Design: Cross-Market Perspectives on Challenges, Solutions, and Predictions for the Future
Data centers — both the great potential they bring and their challenges — are a hot topic. The rapid rise of AI has ensured the general populace is familiar with the concept of data centers, but they’re not a new facet of the built environment.
Today’s data centers evolved from the mainframes and microprocessors of the 1950s-1980s, which then became the “computer rooms” of the 1990s-2000s with the advent the personal computer (PC) and the need to connect multiple PCs to servers. Data centers will continue to evolve as long as people employ vast quantities of data for any number of reasons — research and development; health, safety, and security; and automation and efficiency, to name a few big ones. In this era driven by AI, data centers that support AI computing will certainly influence what the built environment of today and the future looks like.
As a multidisciplinary design firm working across markets — education, commercial, government, healthcare, infrastructure, residential, and retail — one of our superpowers is the ability to pull expertise from each of these sectors and ideate design solutions. Our teams see each design challenge from a particular lens, and when those different lenses come together, we realize smarter, more holistic projects.
We spoke to design directors in our government, commercial, and infrastructure markets to learn about the different types of data centers they design, what they see as the biggest challenges to overcome as it relates to their development, the solutions they’re working with clients to implement, and their thoughts on how they see technology and design solutions evolving.
Speaking to the Experts
Government Design Perspective with Shawn Pelowitz
Shawn Pelowitz, Associate Principal and Government Design Director for Cushing Terrell
The first data centers were built in the 1940s-50s by the U.S. military in support of defense and intelligence. So, it makes sense to first introduce Shawn Pelowitz, an associate principal, architect, and design director for Cushing Terrell’s government group. With 30 years of experience as an architect for federal government entities and now supporting government clients and their projects for Cushing Terrell, Shawn brings a “behind the scenes” understanding of the environments needed for government operations.
“The types of data centers we design for government clients are varied but predominantly support U.S. Department of Defense weapons, intelligence, and communications systems,” Shawn explained. “We also design data and command centers for entities such as the U.S. General Services Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.”
The Veterans Affairs (VA) hub in the renovated Austin Information Technology Center (AITC) is one such project. A substantial facility, the AITC totals more than 250,000 square feet and houses one of VA’s largest core data centers, supporting veteran claims and applications, critical missions, and IT applications for VA medical centers across the country. The project called for an overhaul of the AITC electrical system to enhance functionality and create redundancy to guarantee 24/7 operations in the case of power outages or unforeseen technology issues. For a second act of redundancy, the Cushing Terrell engineering team designed an expansion of the water-cooled central plant to keep the technology operating at full capacity constantly.
The U.S. Veterans Affairs (VA) Austin Information Technology Center is a workplace and data center facility. The AITC houses one of VA’s largest core data centers, supporting veteran claims and applications, critical missions, and IT applications for VA medical centers across the country.
One of the hallmarks of government data center projects is adaptive reuse, Shawn said. “I’ve seen everything from the renovation of an old theater to the conversion of an unused aircraft hangar. It makes for an interesting design challenge with the different building types, but going in, we first assess whether it’s even possible given the security requirements.”
When it comes to renovating/retrofitting existing buildings (or developing new buildings), the design tactics related to security include:
- Incorporating sound-absorbing materials, structural soundproofing measures, and sound masking to ensure confidentiality and acoustic privacy.
- Incorporating electromagnetic shielding of equipment, rooms, and buildings.
- Ensuring specific distances between equipment and walls and building pipes, as well as spaces between cables carrying classified vs. unclassified information.
- Ensuring ductwork and cabling is exposed and visible to deter tampering.
- Designing adaptable systems that can accommodate updated mission profiles, quickly and easily.
Shawn added: “It’s much more complex to put a data center into an existing building because often the level of utility services needed isn’t readily available. So, we get creative and develop space-efficient design solutions and determine how to effectively bring in both power and HVAC systems without impacting the usage needs for other spaces in the building.”
Shawn explained that it’s rare to develop an entirely new government data center, but he has seen an uptick in the construction of modular data centers, which are self-contained, pre-engineered, and standardized. Everything needed — such as servers, storage, power, and cooling systems — are built within containers and shipped to the desired location. The benefits of these data centers include scalability, portability, and quick deployment.
In Cushing Terrell’s 20 years of developing data centers, other types of new builds the firm has designed include those that are part of new office buildings or additions to headquarters or aircraft facilities on U.S. Air Force bases.
When asked what he thinks is the most interesting aspect of data center design, Shawn said it’s the challenge:
“It’s like a big puzzle when you’re dealing with existing buildings and their limitations. We’re called upon to design a solution where we can fit the maximum capacity a client needs for their data center into something with set parameters.”
With a nod toward those first data centers, Shawn said: “For the most part, the federal government is a leader when it comes to innovation. They’re not trying to meet profit goals and can focus on research and development. As we look to the future of what data centers can be, the government is a good place to be. We have a front-row seat to a test bed of new technologies and new ways of doing things.”
When he thinks about the future of data centers, Shawn said we’ll likely become even more reliant on them to comprehensively understand events unfolding around the world. “Data centers are imperative to the ability to review intelligence and make real-time decisions — the majority of mission-critical communications are digital and handled by data centers.”
Commercial Design Perspective with James Foster
James Foster, Associate Principal and Commercial Design Director for Cushing Terrell
The commercial market is another in which Cushing Terrell has been active in data center design. With clients that include Dell, Google, and Amazon, supporting the needs of tech giants has been key to the firm’s work — and an area where the AI boom has been most visible.
James Foster, an associate principal, architect, and design director for our commercial team, has been working with tech clients for 20 years. Thus, he’s cognizant of the need to support their data processing requirements while also supporting their sustainability and decarbonization goals.
“As data center designers, we have similar thoughts about environmental impacts as others do, including our clients. The concerns are top of mind as we develop these projects in the best possible way,” James said. “It’s our goal to make them as energy efficient as possible and to minimize their carbon footprints, just as we do for all other project types.”
Much like Cushing Terrell’s government group, the commercial team often designs data centers as adaptive reuse projects in urban environments and on business campuses. In urban environments, the team looks to reimagine vacant real estate such as office buildings and retail spaces. James explained that it’s not unusual to convert only part of a building for a small data center, while the rest of the building houses other types of tenants.
When choosing the right building, James said, “The first thing we look for is the right structural capacity. Data centers have a heavy physical load, so existing buildings need a strong slab-on-grade design. These are the easiest to convert without extra complications.”
Other things they look for when it comes to existing buildings include:
- Access to utilities and the ability to increase the service size.
- Exterior land or a large surface parking lot to add a utility yard for an uninterruptible power source, backup power, sometimes backup generators, and cooling equipment, such as chillers.
“Most offices have an adequate structural height so that’s usually not a constraint,” James added, “but it sometimes can be.”
Many of the commercial team’s projects are enterprise data centers — the “computer rooms” of the past, but on a grander scale and in support of high-performance computing. These facilities are on site, customized to meet a client’s specific business needs, and house the company’s IT infrastructure.
Cushing Terrell has completed a significant volume of work for Dell Technologies with projects spanning workplace environments, research and development labs, and complex data centers — many of which have earned Green Globes certification.
The Cushing Terrell team also has experience designing cloud data centers. In contrast to enterprise data centers, cloud data centers are owned and operated by third-party providers and are not on the premises of the businesses they serve. These data centers support “cloud computing” and “virtual desktops” for businesses that may not have the IT infrastructure to support their own needs.
Data centers for high-performance computing necessitate direct-liquid-cooling systems because their power density has increased so much that air-cooled data centers are not viable. “Sometimes we add new substations and a duct bank — a giant underground utility line — to support the power needs of these clients,” James added.
When asked how we improve the energy efficiency of a data center, James said first and foremost, we design buildings with efficient, high-performing systems and building envelopes. Secondly, the data center equipment itself is designed to optimize power use from the power source. James noted that direct liquid cooling is also more efficient, with lower energy use.
We’re also seeing clients get creative with where their power comes from — pairing alternative, clean energy with data centers. Where the power is not available on the grid, developing an on-site power solution and making that solution renewable can be a win-win for the business and the environment.
With their ability to help realize efficiencies, increase productivity, support research and development, and enhance knowledge sharing, James said he believes data centers can have net positive gains when it comes to societal advancement. Aside from highly impactful things such as medical and technological advances, James noted that we continue to see everyday inconveniences solved by the information managed by data centers.
“If you ever use GPS, Waze, or Google maps when you’re driving, they can tell you if there’s an accident ahead and alert you to take a different route. That has a direct impact on your efficiency and quality of life, as well as an impact on fuel efficiency. You could also make the case for an impact on outdoor air quality with fewer cars idling on a highway in bumper-to-bumper traffic.”
He added: “There are many examples of how access to information can improve the world, and I think when it comes to data centers, we’ll see a continuous progression of innovations. We look forward to being part of that progress and the effort to meld advanced technologies and design solutions.”
Infrastructure Design Perspective with Alan Bronec
Alan Bronec, Principal and Infrastructure Design Director for Cushing Terrell
Last up in our data center journey is Alan Bronec, a principal, electrical engineer, and design director for Cushing Terrell’s infrastructure group. Alan has more than 30 years of experience designing electrical systems for a wide variety of projects. His experience includes data centers for clients across markets, including crypto currency companies, government entities, industrial and manufacturing clients, and technology companies.
Alan and his team tend to work on the “really big” data centers, those that range up to 200-240 megawatts — they also have a one-gigawatt project in the works. Thus, one of the challenges he sees for his clients is finding both the land and power necessary for these projects. With fluctuating demand and the need to diversify, he notes that some large crypto currency data centers are being repurposed for AI data centers.
“We’ve been doing large crypto data centers for a number of years and that’s given us the knowledge and expertise to do large-scale AI data centers that use an equivalent amount of power,” Alan said. “In fact, we’re seeing crypto data centers being converted to AI data centers, primarily because they have similar infrastructure requirements and the power available at those sites.”
Something Alan and his electrical engineering team have been working on is a one-of-a-kind microgrid/modular data center for battery manufacturing and recycling company Redwood Materials and its subsidiary Redwood Energy in Sparks, Nevada. Redwood Energy’s mission is to increase sustainable battery materials production, and through the company’s second-life initiative, they repurpose electric vehicle batteries into a robust energy storage solution.
The design of the Redwood Energy project includes a sophisticated configuration of solar generation, battery storage, utility power, and backup systems, as well as data center modules. The project is an example of how thoughtful engineering and sustainable design can converge to create high-performance infrastructure with a reduced carbon footprint.
Redwood Energy’s microgrid, which is the largest second-life battery deployment in the world and the largest microgrid in North America, powers a modular data center for AI infrastructure company Crusoe.
While the Redwood Energy site in Nevada was ideal for its microgrid/data center purpose, site selection for other projects can be challenging. Alan says clients need a large amount of land to build both solar arrays and battery storage, coupled with natural gas power generation.
“There’s a push for data centers to partner with utilities and implement distributed generation where a company produces electricity at the point of consumption through onsite solar and/or gas-fired turbines. With these partnerships, a distributed energy source on a data center site could be powered up during a utility’s peak demand time and help take load off the grid.”
Alan added that utility companies are not always inclined to allow distributed generation to run in parallel with the grid because it can cut into their revenue. However, it can offer a benefit by placing power generation sources in areas where there might be power restrictions, meaning the utility wouldn’t have to build as many new transmission and distribution lines with increasing power demand.
Many data center developers are looking for sites in northern states, such as North Dakota, due to their colder climates. The lower ambient temperature allows the heat from the direct-liquid-cooled data equipment to be effectively dissipated using dry coolers and other types of equipment. A significant amount of energy savings can be achieved by locating data centers in cooler environments.
As it relates to the future of data centers, Alan said one of the tough things to predict is the power density that will be needed for the continued evolution of AI computing. “We may design around a certain power density in a data center, but three years from now, what’s needed could be vastly different,” Alan explained.
With liquid immersion cooling in a crypto data center, miners are placed in tanks filled with dialectic fluid, which is piped through a dry cooler.
“The power projections we’re seeing take us from 130kW per cabinet today to what could be up to 600kW per cabinet in just a few years,” he added. “If we design for 600kW per cabinet today and don’t get there, that means we’ve over designed. If we design for 130kW, and two years from now we need to be at 600kW, we’ve under designed. Our challenge is to find the sweet spot to cover a range and to future proof. To future proof, the trick is to make components flexible and scalable.”
Alan’s other prediction: “I think nuclear power will play a big role in the future. Small, modular reactors coupled with renewables will work well because small reactors can modulate. They can provide the base-load power for a data center and, at the peak of the day when solar is producing power, they can throttle back their output.”
Staying at the Forefront by Engaging Multiple Perspectives
While we can only do so much to predict the future, we also know what we design today must be forward-thinking and adaptable. A variety of perspectives, melding innovations and new ideas will always be one of the best ways to develop design solutions that not only make better data centers but better built environments.
Through creativity, innovation, and expertise, our teams look forward to working with clients to develop data centers that exceed our hopes in terms of their energy efficiency and reduced carbon footprints, as well as their ability to support beneficial societal advances.
