Content area
Full Text
Precision timing and an integrated design approach help Manhattan bank stay up and running as it retools its high-tech infrastructure for the future
Converting space in an old office building to accommodate equipment and infrastructure for data and telecommunications systems can be a challenge. The challenge increases dramatically when the building in question is a prewar structure situated on a busy street in a densely packed urban setting.
That was the prospect faced by a team assembled in 1993 to perform a major, high-tech retrofit on a 1920sera Midtown Manhattan office building owned by Republic National Bank (RNB). The engineering portion had three main components: Designing infrastructure for a new data center consolidating RNB's formerly dispersed data operations.
Upgrading and synchronizing the facility's emergency power system.
Modifying and expanding secured loading docks (from two bays to four) to handle increased traffic and heightened security needs brought on by the rapid growth of RNB's precious-metals business.
As in any complicated retrofit, problems encountered in the RNB project-and the solutions achieved-were specific to the job. Yet the range of issues presented made it an excellent laboratory for distilling guidelines for approaching any such retrofit.
All in the planning
The fundamental key to the RNB project's success lay in the meticulous planning-including attention to how every portion of the work would be phased-as engineering drawings were developed. Key factors included the amount of work being done, the building's age, ongoing use of the facility during construction, the busy nature of the site, and the plethora of municipal and utility regulations impinging on multiple aspects of the work.
These issues necessitated an approach that took account of how each separate task would affect others. Moreover, to prevent costly delays and potentially dangerous shutdowns, the complicated ways in which the work would be phased had to be made clear in advance to the project team's other membersincluding, especially, project architects Fox & Fowle, who took the lead role in coordinating the retrofit, and the project scheduler, Datarex.
For Caretsky & Associates to predict accurately how all the "dominoes" would fall required detailed site knowledge. In such cases it is important to cultivate a close working relationship between the project team and owner's representative. Not only is the owner's rep...