In addition to collaborating with our architectural teams on building design, Ellerbe Becket’s global engineering practice offers specialized expertise in the design of mission critical facilities (data centers and control centers) and energy engineering (power generation and heating/cooling). Decades of design experience has given our engineers the ability to carefully analyze our clients’ goals and develop creative solutions that are customized to their engineering needs. Our clients for these engineering-led projects have included colleges/universities, healthcare facilities, private corporations and government agencies.

Maintaining the highest levels of reliability while creating a pleasant and humane control room environment are often thought to be mutually exclusive. Ellerbe Becket disagrees! Rather than take the either/or approach, we consider both equally and in doing so, our projects provide the reliability of a bunker without the operators having to work in one. We have learned, that without exception, an effectively designed control center must find a balance between high technology and human needs in order to ensure that the center and those working within it are able to achieve maximum efficiency and accuracy.

Flexibility…Reliability…Integrity. Our approach to mission critical data center design is characterized by these three concepts. Technology is constantly changing, evolving and creating new opportunities for organizations and their critical facilities. Building design and construction must be able to adapt to these forces of change. If a facility is under-designed, the result is unacceptable levels of downtime. If it is over-designed, the result is wasted funds and difficult-to-maintain systems. Site selection is critical to a secure facility appropriately protected from weather and natural catastrophes as well as man-made hazards. Ellerbe Becket provides all services necessary to ensure that adequate levels of flexibility, reliability, and integrity are designed into each and every facility.

Ellerbe Becket has been designing modern, efficient, reliable engineering systems for nearly a century. The engineering team has planned and designed specialized interiors, building automation systems, life safety systems, code compliance investigations, special electrical and lighting systems, HVAC improvements, heat recovery, structural investigations, vibration control, material and waste handling systems, as well as installation improvements to existing facilities. To ensure that building systems we design are understood and maintained properly by our clients, we have developed a full program of facility maintenance services, including commissioning for building owners and operators.