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Learning Objectives
Explore the building amenities, features, and systems that make Chicago’s 151 North
Franklin an intelligent building.
Learn how the building amenities and features were more accessible to the building’s
owners, operators, and occupants using mobile and web-based applications.
Identify the specific solutions, techniques, and standards used for an integrated and
interoperable building.
The 151 North Franklin building in Chicago is a 35-story, 807,000-sq-ft office tower that is
technically advanced, sustainable, and forward-looking. Designed by John Ronan Architects, 151
North Franklin is a pioneering place for new ways of working. Its clean and elegant design merges
inspiration and business, delivering innovation at every corner. Seamlessly flowing from outside
to inside, tenants benefit from a rooftop sky garden, landscaped 2nd-floor terrace, and other
inspiring amenities, fulfilling the promise that great design is great for business.
Integrating the many engineered systems within a building is a complex process, often handled by
controls experts. This article will look at integration among all the building systems in 151 North
Franklin (mechanical, electrical, plumbing, lighting, fire protection, etc.), and will provide
suggested best practices for engineers to follow when integrating these systems into an intelligent
building.
Building overview
There are many ways to organize and present an intelligent building’s amenities and features. Table
1 summarizes 16 solutions, subsystems, and capabilities that are included in the 151 North Franklin
building. Most of these solutions are provided by the landlord, The John Buck Co., as part of the
base building design and construction. Within the tenant spaces of the building, the tenants will
provide the systems specific to their business operations.
The building has been designed and constructed to maximize the opportunities for tenants to take
full advantage of the base building amenities and features without having to replicate these systems
within their own space.
User-centric design
The 151 North Franklin building has been designed with end users and occupants in mind. Some
of the key characteristics of this design include:
High-performance architecture featuring glass curtain wall and solid stone base.
Floor-to-ceiling glass and 9-ft 6-in. ceilings provide optimized sunlight for increased
productivity.
Rooftop sky garden, 2nd-floor terrace, and 4-story covered plaza, providing a wide variety
of “third-space” options for work beyond the desk.
Industry-leading efficiency provided by column-free lease spans and columnless corners.
Technology to drive connectivity: The building’s technology systems have been specifically
designed to drive connectivity and support a comprehensive digital experience for all visitors,
tenants, building management staff, brokers, and operators. These systems include:
HVAC with demand-based control, which provides greater flexibility and lower cost.
Redundant electrical capacity for flexible and expandable power delivery; backup
generator space is available.
A supplemental solar electrical system.
Destination dispatch elevators for best-in-class performance.
Table 1: These 16 systems describe each of the integrated systems used within the 151 Franklin
building in Chicago. Courtesy: Environmental Systems Design—Intelligent Building Practice
Strategic design: The design of 151 North Franklin takes full advantage of Chicago’s views from
its location. Design features include:
Panoramic, unobstructed vistas including Chicago’s famous skyline and Lake Michigan.
Ample set-back distances allow for high levels of light and air even on the lower floors of
the building.
Minimal obstructions to neighboring properties provide light and air.
Sustainability features and industry certifications: 151 North Franklin is seeking U.S. Green
Building Council’s LEED-CS Gold certification and has already achieved WiredScore Platinum
status because of the developer’s commitment to optimal energy use and high tenant satisfaction
and retention. Specific measures that were taken include:
The digital experience: Technology is continuously changing the way people work and connect,
what’s possible in high-performance buildings, and notions about what constitutes a workplace.
Information is expected to be accessible anytime and anywhere, seamlessly and securely. An
organization’s ability to understand, embrace, and align technology with its corporate culture can
provide a competitive edge that sets it apart to enrich branding, enhance productivity, and attract
and retain the best employees. This makes it even more important that the information technology
and corporate real estate teams be well aligned to reduce risks and gaps in strategy and
implementation. Given the abundance of technologies available, how do we align possibility with
practicality early on, then develop a clear path from strategy to execution?
John Buck Co. has equipped 151 North Franklin with a mobile smartphone application and a web-
based tenant portal software. This software consolidates many different building services along
with helpful information. It provides each tenant with an immediate self-service option for common
tasks like enrolling new users with the security system, entering service requests, and adding
visitors for building access.
Solar-heated domestic water supply and solar electrical source in common area
Floor-by-floor HVAC system (tenant comfort control)
Base building/life safety pathway for tenant backup generators (G1, G2)
Electrical supply/dual feeds/dual risers
Dedicated outside air/ventilation riser (indoor-air quality)
Excerpts from the mechanical, electrical, plumbing (MEP), communications, security, and
sustainable design specification sections for 151 North Franklin are provided below.
Figure 1: The rooftop sky garden is one of several spaces in the building that provide a “third-
space” option for work beyond the desk. Courtesy: The John Buck Co.
Mechanical
Chilled water
The building’s cooling will be provided by offsite district chilled-water production plants via pipe
connections from street distribution to the energy-transfer room located at the lower level.
Heating systems
Electric-resistance heating coils will be provided with each dedicated outside air handling
unit, as well as each amenity and lobby air handling unit.
Electric-resistance baseboard heaters will be provided along perimeter windows and walls
for the ground-floor lobby and at all floors with perimeter glazing higher than 9-ft 6-in.
Baseboard heaters will be interlocked with the fan-powered box serving the respective
perimeter area.
Electric-resistance baseboard heaters along perimeter windows and walls for ground-floor
retail areas will be provided by the tenants. Baseboard heaters shall be interlocked with the
respective air conditioning units provided by the tenants.
Air conditioning
Perimeter offices and interior offices will be supplied from separate variable air volume series flow-
fan-powered boxes, system pressure-independent direct digital control (DDC) by the building
automation system (BAS), low leakage and low-pressure drop for space-temperature control.
Perimeter fan-powered boxes will include electric heating coils for envelope heat.
Control and monitoring of the building mechanical systems, and monitoring of other
building equipment, will be provided by DDCs specified under CSI Division 230923, using
instrumentation specified under 230913, to control/monitor points and execute sequences
of operation as indicated on temperature control drawings.
The DDCs and BAS shall provide central control and monitoring of major HVAC
equipment. The DDC/BAS will consist of two tiers or levels of networks.
The first-tier network shall provide connectivity between all DDC network controllers (B-
BC), the BAS server, and dedicated BAS operator workstations. It shall be Ethernet-based
and shall serve as a backbone for all base building technology systems. A virtual local area
network (VLAN) may be portioned by the owner and dedicated for BAS communications.
The second-tier networks shall provide communications from each DDC network
controller (B-BC) to all DDC controllers, variable-speed drives, equipment-mounted
controllers, and other smart field devices.
All BAS network communications shall use a physical layer of Ethernet and EIA-485.
Ethernet cabling will be provided by structured cabling. EIA-485/twisted pair cabling shall
be provided by the DDC contractor.
Network Controllers will be Tridium JACE-8000 (or OEM-equivalent) B-BC controllers,
with or without input/output (I/O) depending on application, and will run Tridium’s
Niagara 4 middleware software platform.
Figure 3: The view from the office suite provides panoramic scenes of Chicago’s skyline. Courtesy:
The John Buck Co.
Electrical systems
Electric service
Primary distribution: Commonwealth Edison Co. (ComEd) shall provide 12,470 V service
feeders, originating from separate networks, to the project via underground concrete-
encased duct banks. These duct banks shall enter into a utility-owned main-line switching
station and transformer vault located in the basement level.
Secondary distribution: The building shall be provided with service entrance switchboard
rooms and vertically aligned branch electrical closets strategically located to provide an
efficient and economical distribution of wiring systems throughout the facility.
Lighting
Provide lighting systems for base building lobbies; electrical, telephone, mechanical, and
elevator equipment rooms; parking; service areas; corridors; stairways; toilets; storage
rooms; dock area; elevator pits; supply and recirculation fan plenums; roof hatches; exit
signs; etc. The lighting system shall be complete with fixtures, ballasts, drivers, lamps,
branch circuits, and controls to interface with BAS and accessories.
Daylighting and shade controls.
The owner shall provide conduit pathway infrastructure from core to curtain wall to support
the installation of future tenants’ motorized shades during their fit-out.
Plumbing
Provide dual 12-in. domestic water services connected to the water main in the street per
the local water department’s requirements and route into the building’s dedicated pump
room.
Provide and install an 8-in. domestic-water service, water meters, and all associated valves
on the water services as required by the City of Chicago, and a branch with an 8-in. water
line with a double-detector check-valve assembly for continuation by the fire protection
contractor.
Stormwater system
Furnish and install roof drains at all roofs (as noted on the architect’s drawings) along with
the interior drainage system and downspouts for a complete operable stormwater system.
All storm/waste piping, above grade level, shall be connected to a gravity storm sewer.
Collect all storm piping and route to the storm detention structure included with overflow.
The civil engineer will continue the sewer from that point.
Fire protection
Standpipe system
A standpipe system shall be provided for the new proposed high-rise building.
The water supply for the combination sprinkler and standpipe riser shall be hydraulically
calculated to supply a residual pressure of 65 psi at the topmost outlet, with a flow rate
equal to 250 gpm plus actual sprinkler system demand but not less than 500 gpm.
A supervised automatic sprinkler system shall be installed throughout the entire premises,
except in ComEd vaults, dedicated electrical transformer rooms, dedicated main-building
switchboard rooms, dedicated electrical closets or rooms where voltage exceeds 600 V,
base building life safety emergency generator rooms, elevator shafts, and elevator machine
rooms.
Communications
Pathways—incoming services: Eight 4-in. conduits from the property line are specified for
incoming serve to each of the two TEF rooms.
Backbone
Vertical fiber backbone: One 12-strand OM4 multimode fiber-optic cable will be provided
from NetPOP A to telecommunications room A (TR A) on every 5 floors as well as the
basement TR and SatPOP.
This backbone is for the building’s network and other systems the building wishes to
deploy. It will allow the IP devices (BAS controllers, lighting controllers, security-access
control panels, security cameras, etc.) on each group of three floors to connect to the
building LAN access switch.
There may be a consideration for additional single-mode fiber-optic cabling if it is required
to support a distributed antenna system (DAS) implementation.
Figure 4: The rooftop solar array is an important element of the overall sustainability solution for
151 North Franklin. Courtesy: The John Buck Co.
Data network
The data network provides the delivery of information services throughout the building. The data
network is a single, unified physical network that is comprised of several independent logical
networks. A wide variety of network-enabled devices use the data network utility to send and
receive information. A device’s ability to communicate with other devices is governed by the
security policies that are implemented throughout the data network. By designing and
implementing the data network to be flexible and adaptive, this reduces the management and
operational expense of reconfiguration once the network is installed.
The systems/devices that will use the unified data network include the following:
Servers.
Voice system
The main voice system will be completely Voice over Internet Protocol, with voice servers residing
in the NetPOP or hosted offsite. The voice system shall have a redundant voice server with
automatic failover capabilities.
The building will deploy a DAS that will provide cellular enhancement for multiple wireless
carriers over a common infrastructure. It also will allow for two-way radios used by building
operations staff to utilize the same infrastructure.
Security system
General description
System purpose: The security system is designed to control authorized access and prohibit
unauthorized access to private or restricted spaces and to record access events for later
investigation or audit purposes. The security system will consist of card-reader access
control, visitor management, intercom, and security camera subsystems. Duress- or panic-
alarm systems and intrusion-alarm systems are not included.
The purpose of the ACS is to control authorized access and prohibit unauthorized access to
private or restricted spaces and to record access activity for later investigation or audit
purposes. The ACS will consist of card readers, data-gathering panels, door
controls/sensors, and door alarms.
The purpose of the VMS is to register and log visitors, print badges, track visitors, and
provide reports.
The VMS will consist of a standard PC with a camera and badge printer for lobby reception
desk use and a stand-alone kiosk for visitor self-registration.
The purpose of the security camera system is to augment the ACS by providing a means to remotely
assess activity at access points and to record video images of activity at those locations for later
investigation or audit purposes. The security camera system will consist of IP cameras and a
network video recorder (NVR).
NVRs will have a TCP/IP network interface for control and operation.
All camera monitoring, playback, and control will be via standard web browser interface.
Personnel with proper system authorization will be able to access live and/or recorded video
from desktop PCs.
The cameras will be high-resolution color cameras. Additional camera features, such as
low-light capability and wide dynamic range, will be provided with specific cameras where
those features will be necessary to provide a quality image.
Figure 2: The mobile app provides digital credentials for access through the turnstiles to the
elevator lobby. Courtesy: The John Buck Co.
Sustainable design
The project will be certified under the LEED-CS v2009 rating system.
The project’s LEED certification goal is Gold.
Water efficiency
This project is proceeding with Option 1: ASHRAE Whole Building Energy Simulation.
As a prerequisite, the proposed design must demonstrate a 10% improvement in energy
cost when compared with a baseline building modeled against ASHRAE Standard 90.1-
2007: Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, Appendix G
(Performance Rating Method).
The project can earn one point for each additional 2%-point improvement in annual energy-
cost reduction under U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Energy and Atmosphere credit
1 (EAc1)—Optimized Energy Performance.
A baseline and proposed model was created using IES-VE Pro energy-modeling software.