Data Center Construction in the Boulder Valley

NIST Boulder houses the cesium atomic clock that serves as the source of the nation's official time, and the lab itself was dedicated in 1954. Anyone who builds a data hall in this valley is working next door to some of the least forgiving timekeeping and measurement equipment in the country, which sets a tone. Buyers here expect redundant power, clean grounding and documentation that someone can audit.

We build data centers for owners who need a room, a suite or a building that stays up. That ranges from a tenant fit-out inside an existing building to a ground-up shell with its own substation. Our job in the first weeks is to find the constraints that decide success: utility capacity, fiber routes, generator rules, and the cooling plan that the code will accept. Everything else in the project follows from those four.

Why the Boulder Valley supports data work

Longmont approved NextLight in May 2013, a municipal gigabit fiber network meant to reach every house and business over three years. A locally owned fiber backbone matters to anyone who needs a diverse network path. The metro also has long-standing technology tenants: Seagate Technology is the third largest employer in Longmont on the 2020 list, and State Highway 119 passes a large IBM facility at its intersection with State Highway 52 near Niwot.

The federal and research community adds its own demands. Boulder hosts the National Center for Atmospheric Research, NIST, NOAA, the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Snow and Ice Data Center and the National Solar Observatory. Owners connected to that community often need computing capacity in a small footprint with strong security and a short fiber run, and they ask us whether a modest conversion would serve them as well as new construction. Often it does. See our work on the federal research labs area for how the site conditions differ.

Power and cooling come before walls

A data hall is an electrical and mechanical project that happens to need a roof. We work first on the one-line diagram, utility service entrance, switchgear, generators, UPS and distribution, then on the cooling plant and the white space layout. Structural and architectural decisions follow, such as slab thickness for rack loads, ceiling height for containment, and the roof area needed for condensers and dry coolers.

We choose to pre-order and to stage. Switchgear, generators and chillers have lead times that can run longer than the whole construction period, so we begin procurement through our long-lead procurement process as soon as a design basis exists. Where tenants will fit out a shell later, we install the infrastructure for the full buildout and leave the white space to a staged program, so each phase brings capacity online without disturbing the one before.

Energy, emergency power and review

The City of Boulder's commercial energy code requires all-electric design with listed exceptions, and one of them is emergency generators. Data centers lean on that exception, but the code also addresses on-site fuel and emissions, so generator sizing, run-time limits and air permits belong in the first design meeting. Statewide, HB22-1362 sets an energy performance floor of the 2021 IECC for any code update after July 1, 2023, and from July 1, 2026 the benchmark becomes the state model low energy and carbon code, which affects mechanical design and lighting.

Building code editions differ by town, and several communities are in the middle of updates. We confirm the edition in force with each building department. We also plan the design review as part of the schedule: a data center in a town with its own review culture can take longer to approve than the shell takes to build, and a clear early package is the best protection.

A schedule built around the critical equipment

A typical data center schedule is set by procurement. We sequence site work and foundations to finish while gear is in fabrication, then set the equipment on a prepared pad and complete the shell around it. Structural steel, roof, and containment follow, and testing starts as soon as power is energized.

Commissioning is a project in itself. Level 1 through 5 testing includes factory witness testing, equipment startup, integrated systems tests, and load bank runs that prove the facility can carry its rated load. We schedule these with the owner's operations team, and we keep a punch list that closes before the tenant moves in. Our commissioning and closeout team stays on until the documentation is complete.

Services that sit alongside the build

Many data center owners combine this work with a data center construction contract and tenant improvements in the office portion. A data center is also often placed in a building shared with flex light industrial space, so we coordinate the base building and tenant work. Owners who are converting an older warehouse or industrial building can use our renovation and adaptive reuse experience to evaluate whether the structure can carry the load.

If your organization is in government and the public sector, procurement rules affect timing, and we can plan around them.

Start with the power study

Share the target capacity, the redundancy level and the site or building you have in mind. We will help you test utility capacity, cooling and code constraints, and return a schedule and budget range.

Questions Owners Ask

Does the Boulder energy code limit on-site generation for a data center?

The commercial energy code lists emergency generators among its exceptions, but it does not remove air, fuel or fire code requirements. We review generator size, fuel storage and run-time limits with the city before design is final, and we plan for noise and emissions review.

Is fiber access available for a data center in Longmont?

Longmont approved a municipal gigabit fiber network called NextLight in May 2013, intended to reach every house and business. That is a useful local resource, but each site needs its own route and carrier agreements, so we check them during due diligence.

How long does it take to deliver a data hall?

Equipment lead times control the schedule more than construction. A fit-out in an existing building can move faster than a ground-up shell, but only if the base building has power capacity. We provide a schedule with long-lead items and utility milestones marked.

Can an existing industrial building be converted?

Often, if the floor can carry rack loads, the roof can take new equipment and the utility service can be expanded. We study structure, clear height and utility capacity before we recommend conversion over new construction.

What happens when the code edition changes mid-project?

The edition is fixed by the permit application date in most jurisdictions. We confirm that rule with the building department and submit complete drawings quickly when an update is approaching.

Related

More Building Types

Browse the rest of our building types pages for Boulder and nearby Colorado communities, or contact us to talk through your project.