Combat Aviation Brigade Headquarters Building
Additional Info
Award Winner : Ramtech Building Systems, Inc.
Architectural Excellence : The 99,050 sf building is designed to house a Brigade, four Medium Battalions and one Large Battalion command of a Combat Aviation Brigade. In addition to the Battalions and Brigade areas, the building houses a Special Compartmentalized Information Facility (SCIF), a Brigade Operations Center (BOC), a Network Operations Center (NOC), and five large classrooms made flexible with acoustical folding partitions. The two-story building is made up of 100 individual modules combined with some site-built elements housing the stairways and an elevator. The building, designed to be the most prominent structure of the facilities supporting a brigade function, features a full masonry exterior with extensive articulation and detail to a structure whose footprint is larger than a football field. While the majority of the roof surface is a low slope membrane, areas of 4/12 standing seam steel roofing were added at the entry and end stair towers to bring a greater vertical element to the elevations.
Cost Energy Effectiveness : To comply with federal executive orders, all new federal construction must meet the requirements of LEED Silver Certification. In addition to LEED Silver, the building’s energy consumption was designed exceed the requirements of ASHRAE 90.1 by at least 30%. To accomplish this in a desert environment, Ramtech utilized four sixty-ton Trane Intelipak evaporative assisted D-X self-contained roof top units. These four primary RTUs feed over 140 individual VAV boxes providing flexibility in temperatures setting throughout the structure. The entire system is connected to a base-wide Energy Management Control System through an open implementation of LON. Other aspects of LEED compliance in the building include automated lighting controls, two-stage low consumption flush valves, waterless urinals, energy star roofing material, recycling of waste materials (to achieve a 50% diversion of waste normally sent to land-fills) and utilization of construction materials with a 20% recycled content.
Occupied Date : 9/30/2009
Production Start Date : 9/1/2008
Project Location City : Fort Bliss
Project Location State Name : TX
Technical Innovation : Ramtech’s accelerated building system allowed for compliance with the Army’s requirement of a 6”, 4,000 psi concrete slab foundation. Since the structure houses U.S. combat troops, rigid Anti-Terrorism construction was incorporated including blast resistant windows and doors, and a building envelope encapsulation in the event of a chemical or biological attack. The building’s electrical system utilizes both 120/208v and 480/277v. with a 2,000 amp service. Redundancies in power and HVAC were required for emergencies and also for anticipated equipment failures. The building is equipped with a Kohler 50 KVA standby generator, a 50 KVA Eaton Powerware UPS Station, two-stage ThyssenKrupp hydraulic elevator with pit and sump, and over 22 ton of redundant HVAC for the SCIF, BOC & NOC. The data and comm. system features both a 900 pair copper and fiber optics entrance, with CAT-5 cabling utilized throughout the building. Over 40 miles of comm. and data wiring were pulled during the project.
Total Square Feet : 99050
Category : Permanent: Office: over 10,000 sq. ft.