General Motors Enterprise Data & Technical Center, Warren, MI

In an effort to consolidate IT operations from 23 facilities to two, General Motors built an enterprise data center as the hub of its existing Technical Center campus outside Detroit. The new, world-class data center increases IT performance, enhances security, reduces energy costs and helps make GM a more efficient, competitive and sustainable company.

As MEP engineer and sustainability consultant, Syska Hennessy Group implemented GM’s rigorous quality standards of scalability and flexibility to limit initial capital and maintain operational costs. To complement the existing facility, we designed a building addition with an exterior equipment yard to accommodate four data-hall modules and supporting infrastructure. The data halls support 240 w/sf of critical IT load with an additional 30 w/sf critical load designated for the in-row coolers within the hot-aisle containment structures (HACS). The in-row cooling equipment delivers the conditioned air necessary to cool the IT equipment and ambient environment, and a raised floor provides raceways for all of the support system’s interconnectivity.

The addition links to the existing building and contains administrative offices, technical spaces and multiple conference rooms with fully integrated audiovisual systems. The Command Center provides 24/7 technical support with high-speed backbone communications capability, and houses 45 efficient workstations and an innovative, interactive video wall.

The design team ensured scalability by building uniform modular units within the layout, accommodating the operating system’s equipment profiles and facilitating future growth for GM. We provided a 2N electrical distribution system incorporating a fault-tolerant design, which reduces risk and increases reliability.

Our efforts contributed to a 70-percent reduction in energy use. This project is GM’s fifth LEED-certified facility and second on a brownfield site. When the project achieved LEED Gold in 2013, it was among five percent of data centers that had earned LEED Gold certification.