Emerson Global Data Center: A Whole Building Design Guide Case Study

This entry contains a link to a detailed case study published by the Whole Building Design Guide.

Emerson began construction of a global data center on the campus of the company's St. Louis headquarters in early 2008. The data center supports the company's initiative to consolidate its global network—comprised of more than 100 data centers worldwide—into just four facilities, while leveraging innovative architectural and building designs and IT infrastructure technologies to optimize energy and operational efficiency.

The facility's cutting-edge architectural design complements an efficient technology infrastructure to trigger energy savings of up to 31 percent over a traditional enterprise data center. The facility is fully equipped with a host of unique energy-saving attributes, including daylighting features, a reduced building footprint and one of the largest rooftop solar arrays used by a data center. These design and construction features were enhanced by internally-developed strategies addressing the three most critical constraints faced by data center managers today—power, cooling and space.

To complete the project, Emerson enlisted an estimated 150 workers and leveraged the expertise of several design and construction partners, including Fox Architects, Musick Construction, Clive Samuels & Associates and Technology Site Planners. Principal construction on the 35,000 sq. ft., $50 million facility (including all Phase I equipment) was completed in July 2009.