Motorola Mobility

Office; Motorola Mobility; Alfa Tech

By Alfa Tech August 15, 2013

Engineering firm: Alfa Tech
2013 MEP Giants rank:
63
Project:
Motorola Mobility
Address:
Sunnyvale, Calif., United States
Building type:
Office
Project type:
Other
Engineering services:
Electrical/Power, HVAC
Project timeline:
March 2011 to March 2012
Engineering services budget:
$10.59 million
MEP budget:
$11.72 million

Challenges

The engineering challenges for this multiple-floor (1st, 6th, 7th, and 8th floors; 35,000 sq ft each floor) tenant improvement on a cold shell high-rise building project included the fast track schedule, cost, life safety smoke control redesign due to new 2-hour separation walls required by the city of Sunnyvale, and food service makeup air.

Solutions

For scheduling and cost, the solution was to proceed with an integrated design approach which forces all parties, including engineers and subcontractors, to work together on a hands-on approach to speed up the shop drawing process, responses to requests for information, and field issues. For smoke control, the solution was to hire an expeditor that had worked with the city before to speed up the approval process. For the food service, instead of bringing makeup air from the exterior envelope (not preferred in a high-profile, high-rise building) and conditioning it, the engineer and CMI (the HVAC subcontractor) worked together on a design-assist basis and provided the innovative design, which used the building return air for the kitchen hood makeup air, saving energy and reducing cost.