Stack Infrastructure

Housing 32 Megawatts of Capacity

Longtime client HIMES Associates approached HGA seeking a fresh perspective on their latest venture. STACK Infrastructure, the digital infrastructure partner to the world’s most innovative companies and a leading global developer and operator of data centers sought our expertise to provide insight on a building proposal that faced challenges within San Jose’s City Planning Department

The majority of data centers are flat box-shaped facilities located in suburbs or rural areas. STACK’s SVY01 data center campus, however, is located in San Jose’s Enterprise Zone, a 10-square mile area that includes most of Downtown San Jose and has been designated to attract and retain businesses. The city initially sought to develop a 25-story hotel on the site in this transit-oriented area, before approving the data center. Because of STACK’s urban location, design quality and sensitivity to the surroundings both now and into the future was paramount.

HGA’s local connection and experience became critical when the COVID-19 pandemic hit during the approval process, as the City of San Jose moved to a work-from-home model and had to make all approvals virtually. HGA quelled any concerns the city had by ensuring the data center facility would be more than just a bland box and hosted a neighborhood review session with very little opposition.

The three-story, LEED-Silver building houses offices and electrical rooms on the ground floor and data halls on the upper two floors. With 32 megawatts total spread over four data halls, each house roughly 1,000 racks. The mechanical system consists of water-cooled chillers on the roof, feeding fan walls blowing conditioned air across the data halls.

The facility’s power is backed up by 20 diesel fuel emergency generators situated on both ends of the building, providing block-redundancies for the data halls. The offset plan, deemed “shear”, became the source of subsequent design decisions. Generator enclosure walls slip into an inverted U-shaped roof and egress stairs thread their way between. End wall mesh screens, backlit at night, and the building’s multi-colored modular stucco paneling add dimension and feature shearing patterns, while recycled concrete slabs in the landscape complete the composition.

Because the front and back of the building both face roads, the main entry occurs at the center of the building. Ensuring the building is secure was essential, and the main lobby includes a security guard desk and secured access to the facility.

Partnership was critical to the success of the project. As supply chain issues disrupted the building industry, HGA partnered with the General Contractor to work through these problems quickly and efficiently. In addition, the project was a collaborative effort between HGA’s San Jose and Washington D.C. offices, where the expertise of both teams came together to navigate the opportunities and challenges of the project.