Mission Accomplished: How An Intelligent High-Rise Met Corporate Objectives

[ By John McDermott ]

Phase I of ABN AMRO Plaza in Chicago is 29 stories, 1.4 million gross square feet. Exterior is glass and metal curtain wall.

ABN AMRO North America, Inc. and its main North American subsidiary, LaSalle Bank, faced a decision in early 1999 about their downtown Chicago office space needs. At the time, they occupied approximately 1.5 million square feet in five locations. The buildings ranged from a Class A, 1990s building to a 1920s building in need of complete update of all major building systems. Senior management appointed a recently retired chairman to spearhead an evaluation team to explore options for their growing business.

They faced an ever-expanding IT network due to multiple locations, multiple furniture configuration and office size layouts and very different real estate requirements, as a result of widely varying business functions. Senior management identified space efficiency, cost savings, consolidation, room for growth and attracting and retaining a high-quality workforce as high-level objectives.

The project team began an evaluation of existing buildings and simultaneously launched an in-depth study of office size and functional requirements, including a review of standards of key competitors. The evaluation revealed no plausible existing spaces that would adequately meet their needs and a very good opportunity for space efficiency if they consolidated, re-stacked and reconfigured their space.

The project team turned its attention to a new construction solution and engaged Hines to assist in the planning, scheduling and feasibility analysis for construction of a new building to accommodate their entire non-customer-facing operations. They decided to keep all customer- facing operations in their existing headquarters on LaSalle Street in the heart of Chicago's financial district.

The project received a number of state and city incentives, valued at $48 million, and saved approximately $6 million on insurance.

The analysis included an evaluation of possible development sites and their impact on commuting patterns, future growth, cost and ability to attract and retain a high quality work force. The result of the study was a recommendation and approval to begin construction on ABN AMRO Plaza.

The project was designated a High Impact Business ("HIB") by the State of Illinois and therefore has received exemptions from state sales and use taxes associated with building materials incorporated in it, valued at approximately $8 million. In addition, the project received financial assistance from the City of Chicago in the form of tax increment financing (TIF) to assist with the costs associated with the construction of the project, valued at approximately $40 million.

The project used an Owner Controlled Insurance Program (OCIP) for the Worker's Compensation and Employers' Liability, Commercial General Liability and Umbrella Liability, and Builder's Risk coverage, saving approximately $6 million.

Although this is a single-user building, Hines has incorporated most of the modular features that were used here in multi-tenant projects that cater to large corporate users. The redundant features and utility back-ups, however, are not economically feasible in multi-tenant projects.

The Two-Phased, Twin Building Solution

A five-story podium, a 21-story office tower and three mechanical floors stack up the Phase I building. The podium floors, with a typical floor plate of 60,000 square feet, house the ground-floor lobby and retail arcade, mezzanine-level main elevator lobby and wellness center, an employee cafeteria on the second floor, Service Products (banking operations) on the third and fourth floors and a Data Center on the fifth floor. The bank's administrative functions occupy the office floors eight through 28 with a typical floor plate of 38,000 square feet. All major mechanical and electrical equipment is located on floors six, seven and 29.

The project was completed by the Hines team on time and under budget and has been very well received by the bank employees, bank management and the Chicago business and real estate community. To achieve the goal of reducing occupancy costs by 15 percent, space standards were revised for space planning efficiency, and an under-floor air system, modular wiring termination system and modular walls and furniture were installed.

Other objectives were met as follows: Reducing operational risk

• Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) and Emergency Power Supply (EPS)
• On-site water storage
• Redundant utility and telecom points of entry and distribution
• Multiple feeds from the local electric utility company

The building is designed to accommodate potential multi-tenant use, with:

• Three elevator banks in tower
• Phasing - Phase I - Phase II
• Open floor plan

• Large base floors for service products and IT
• Re-stacking
• Five service elevators
• Interior secure loading dock for eight trucks and 12 vans

• Location - adjacency to train stations
• Floor-to-ceiling glass
• Nine-foot, six-inch ceiling with indirect lighting
• Offices in interior with workstations on perimeter
• Roof garden, cafeteria and parking

Architectural Features and Landscaping

Phases I and II were designed with a glass and metal curtain wall that complements the North Clinton Street corridor. Each floor incorporates horizontal elements of tinted spandrel and vision glass. A metal-clad spandrel band separates every third floor, thus creating shadow lines and enhancing the strength of the building's horizontal features.

Several vertical elements also enhance the project's architecture. A prominent, metal-clad column is offset from the Phase I building's southern tip. In addition, vertical columns at the eighth and ninth floor levels add greater architectural interest to the building. These columns tie together the base of the building with the tower and provide a contrast to the mechanical screening, which begins at the eighth level. The project has an exterior lighting plan that highlights and accentuates the building's architectural features. The project has two landscaped plazas.

A roof garden is located on the roof of the podium, where the mechanical floor sets back 70 feet from the podium floor plate. Raised, built-in planters with shade trees, flowering trees and evergreen trees with under-planting of masses of shrubs, ground covers and perennial flowers cover a minimum of 50 percent of the terrace area. The planters are fully drained and irrigated and contain washed gravel, filter fabric and planting soil. The roof garden surface is paved by precast pavers on adjustable pedestals over fluid-applied membrane on a sloped concrete slab.

The Hines project team aided in the design and development of a floor termination unit (FTU) that is the same diameter as a swirl diffuser, the air delivery device located in a raised floor. The FTU provides all the needed power and technology for each workstation and office. The design allows for the stocking of two configurations of floor tile: one solid and one with a hole in the center of a quadrant of the tile. This allows for placement of a FTU or swirl diffuser anywhere on the floor on a one-foot by one-foot grid.

IT and Mechanical Systems

The building is designed to accommodate potential multi-tenant use, with three elevator banks, and open floor plans. Shown at left is lobby; at right is building exterior.

A sophisticated building management and control system was installed. It consists of a network of independent microprocessor-based direct digital control units and unitary controllers communicating over a two-tier LAN, designed to operate, monitor and maintain the building mechanical systems.

The building is cooled by a central chilled water refrigeration system located on the 29th floor mechanical penthouse. The system consists of five 1,000-ton centrifugal refrigeration machines based on an N+1 design corresponding chilled and condenser water pumps. The chiller plant is split into two separate cross-tied systems in two separate rooms, so that a major disaster in one area will not affect the other. The combined system will support the entire building with an N+1 redundancy level plus space for one future machine. Either half of the plant will support the mission critical area on an N+1 redundancy level. The chilled water pumps are arranged so that one pump serves one chiller. The chillers are piped in a parallel configuration with an entering water temperature of 54 degrees F and leaving water temperature of 36 degrees F. Chilled water is supplied to all cooling coils, package AV units at Data Center and fan coils. Dual chilled water risers feed from each plant and serve the mission critical areas.

Five 1,100-ton cooling towers are located on the 29th floor mechanical penthouse with space for one future unit to serve the chiller plant and supplemental cooling units. The cooling towers are sized to provide N+1 level of redundancy. Each cooling tower fan is controlled by a variable frequency drive.

In each refrigeration plant, a 1,000-ton plate and frame heat exchanger is installed to provide free cooling when outside air temperature meets requirements. The heat exchanger is piped so that both condenser water and chilled water can operate in parallel with the chillers with separate pumps.

The building is heated by electric resistance throughout. Lobby and cafeteria air handling units have electric heating to heat the large quantity of make-up outside air. All ground floor entrance doors are heated by cabinet unit heaters with electric heating coils. Mezzanine and cafeteria exterior skin is heated by a series of fan-powered boxes with ECM motors and electric heaters. Office tower floor exterior skin is heated by chilled water fan coil units with ECM motors and electric heaters. Electric infrared heaters are provided at the loading dock and garage entrance ramp.

Electrical Systems

The life safety emergency system has an auxiliary source of power derived from a diesel generator located on the ground floor. The life safety emergency generator has multiple automatic transfer switches and provides emergency power to emergency lighting, fire alarm and life safety system, electric driven fire pumps, fire fighter's elevators, and sewage ejector and sump pumps.

A series of 480/277 volt or 299/120 volt switchboards power the building's HVAC systems. Power for the chillers, at 4,160 volts, is delivered from five KV switchgear located on floor seven; distribution is split into an "A" system and a "B" system, with switchgear located in separate rooms. Chillers, fans, pumps and cooling towers are all evenly divided between the two systems to increase reliability. Metering for typical office floors is separate, powered from multiple branch circuit panel boards located in the core area on each floor and fed from the ComEd transformer room in the core.

The mission critical areas of the building have four separate branches of power: Normal (originating from ComEd), Essential (originating from multiple diesel generators), Critical (originating from the UPS system) and Life Safety (originating from life safety generator), providing a coordinated power system for the mission critical areas that has no single point of failure. Backup for essential power comes from a lineup of two MW diesel generators, proving N+1 level of redundancy, and critical power is fed by two separate UPS systems arranged in a 2N+1 redundancy configuration.

The building is designed to have an integrated City of Chicago-approved fire alarm system with smoke detection and sprinkler alarm systems. The fire alarm system is fully addressable with distributed components, including power supplies, amplifiers and processors. A high-rise life safety, one-way communication system covers each floor of the entire structure. A two-way communication system is provided for each stairwell and designated areas such as large equipment rooms, fire pump room and emergency generator room.

John McDermott is vice president of Hines, responsible for acquisition, development and financing projects in the company's Midwest region.

For more information

Hines
www.hines.com