Telecommunications & Data Center Facilities
Verizon Wireless
Southlake, TXU.S Cellular
Various LocationsVerizon
Camden, NJVerizon
Madison, NJVerzion Wireless
Branchburg, NJBlank Rome Comisky McCauley
Philadelphia, PA


WFW designed the mechanical, electrical, fire protection, plumbing, and security system for a 180,000 sq.ft. building for Verizon Wireless at Southlake, TX, to accommodate a 18,000 sq.ft. network operating center, a 20,000 sq.ft. data center, a 10,000 sq.ft. mobile switching center, and administrative space. The building can be expanded to 368,000 sq.ft. in the future. The building has dual 25 kV electric service from separate substations, four 2 MW generators, 2,575 kVA redundant UPS capacity, and redundant feeders. Cooling is performed mostly from two 500-ton water-cooled chillers in N+1 redundancy and cooling towers. Fire protection includes wet sprinklers, double-interlocked pre-action sprinklers and FM-200 suppression. Fire detection includes spot type detectors and air sampling smoke detectors.

Wick Fisher White was contracted to design prototype Mobile Telephone Switching Centers (MTSO) throughout the nation for U.S. Cellular Corporation, the nation's eighth largest wireless telecommunications provider. At this point, the prototype is planned to be adapted to locations in Maine, New Hampshire, Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri.

WFW designed an upgrade of the electrical infrastructure for Verizon-NJ at the Camden Central Office and Camden 2 Central Office. These two telecommunication equipment buildings are adjoining 100,000 square feet buildings in downtown Camden, NJ.
The design included upgrade of the commercial power systems in each building, including three new 480V, 4000A switchboards. Each new switchboard will have commercial and standby power buses and automatically operated transfer breaker pairs to transfer distribution panel feeders between buses to ensure connection of all loads to an available source. All controls, alarms and monitoring computer controlled.
The design also included three new 2000 kW standby diesel generators and new paralleling switchgear to be installed in a penthouse expansion. The new standby power distribution system will implement N+1 generator redundancy, including capacity to support the Camden and Camden 2 CO loads and future load projections. Redundant feeders will be provided to each switchboard and to telephone equipment loads downstream for added redundancy.

Renovation of 3-story, 225,000 sq. ft. computer data center. The project is to be completed over several years and will be consolidating several different Verizon groups to the building. Design included a mechanical / electrical master plan, wet sprinkler system, five (5) double interlocked preaction systems, ADA upgrades, new built-up HVAC systems including ATC, major modifications to the chilled water system including a new chiller, new perimeter radiation, UPS, fire alarm, power and lighting systems. Design is completed to meet Verizon's fast tracked schedules and minimal building system shut-downs.

WFW provided the mechanical, electrical and fire protection design for a 4000 sq.ft. data center for Verizon Wireless in their Branchburg, NJ office. To support the data center, the electric service was upgraded. The power system is backed up by two redundant 750 kW diesel generators, and two parallel redundant 500 kVA UPS units. Cooling is performed by (5) DX computer room air conditioning units (one redundant) with air distribution from a raised floor plenum. Fire protection includes double interlock pre-action sprinkler system and FM-200 suppression. Power room ventilation designed to satisfy NFPA requirements.

The work involved the expansion of the server room to 1,375 square feet. The project is located on the third floor of the Blank Rome Building, on Sixth Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The work included a feasibility study to review the server equipment layout options, analyze the equipment power and sources, and propose options to provide cooling, including any high density cooling options. The renovations included a design for the HVAC, plumbing, electrical, fire suppression and fire alarm systems that serve the server room.