 Lobby
of the Nokia Corporate Headquarters
Nokia wished to house some of the major corporate headquarters
functions near Wall Street, including the CFO of this global corporation.
Nokia selected Westchester County as the site for it’s newest
headquarters because of it’s proximity to downtown New York
(13 miles) and because of the quality of life. Syska Hennessy Group
was selected through competitive bid for the engineering design
of both their Interim Space (52,000 sq. ft.) of fast-track construction
as well as for their long term Headquarters (100,000 sf).
The selected site was an existing building in Harrison, NY, which
had been vacant since 1996. Reuse of the site would simplify the
permitting process as long as the height and footprint of the new
building did not exceed the existing building. After review of
the existing structure was completed it was decided that in order
to achieve the ceiling heights and floor loading required for Nokia,
it would be less costly to raze the existing building and build
new on the same footprint. The new building would need to match
the overall height of the building that had been existing.
Further complicating the design, the existing building had been
part of an office park, and the chillers and boilers which provided
cooling and heating to the existing building were housed in a building
across the street and those umbilical cords had been cut 8 years
ago. Therefore, the building required all new gas, domestic water,
telecommunications and electrical utility services from the street.
This new facility will house the following functions:
- Global headquarters of Nokia's Enterprise Solutions
Group
- The U.S. marketing sales group of Nokia's Multimedia Group
- Nokia Concept Store for Mobility
- Nokia’s CFO office and support
- Corporate Finance Meeting Rooms
Significant technological features of the project included:
- Carbon Dioxide Monitoring to improve indoor air quality;
adjusting outside air quantities to adjust for occupancy.
- Emergency Generation and UPS: The critical server and
technology rooms are provided with conditioned power through
a single modules UPS and continued service through power outages
with the emergency generator.
- Ceiling Heights: Even though
a new building was built, the floor to floor heights were restricted
since the
overall height of the building could not exceed that of the existing
building.
Mechanical, plumbing and electrical engineers worked closely
with the architect and structural engineer to achieve 9’0” to
10’0” ceiling heights throughout the office space.
Early coordination with the steel design for beam cuts and
duct routing allowed for greater ceiling heights, enhanced
views for
the occupants and better daylight infiltration.
- Daylighting Design: The lighting designers and electrical
engineers worked closely to achieve the ASHRAE 90.1 recommended
lighting energy allowance while providing aesthetically unique
interior spaces. The design also incorporates daylighting design
features with dimmable ballast which reduce the light output
from the perimeter fixtures base upon photocells.
- Lighting Design to Match ‘Natural’ Elements: The
architect created themes within the building (riverbed/wind/forest/sky/rock);
the lighting designers were challenged to match the moods and
highlight and accentuate these features. Feature walls and technology
exhibits
are sprinklered throughout the space as the building itself
is a showcase of Nokia’s heritage and technical leadership.
- Fire Protection: The building was fully sprinkled and
provided with a state-of-the-art addressable fire alarm system
and smoke exhaust system; all monitored by the Building Management
System. Early coordination and involvement with the Town Fire
Marshall helped ensure compliance and approvals as well as opened
lines
of communication when issues arose.
- Building Management System (BMS): The BMS controls
all mechanical equipment, monitors electric energy consumption
and
monitors critical infrastructure systems. The Computer Room
AC Units, UPS system and emergency distribution system are continually
monitored by the BMS and alert Nokia staff of any alarm. The
air
handling units were specified with Bacnet controllers so that
the monitoring and control points were pre-wired and mapped for
easy
connection to the BMS. The BMS was also an important tool in
our commissioning effort, simulating different seasons and design
conditions
and validating the sequence of operations.
- Commissioning: Syska Hennessy
Group is acting as the Commissioning Agent for the building systems.
Working closely
with the Construction Manager we ensured the performance of
the designed systems met the design intent and that Nokia’s
operations personnel were properly trained for the ongoing
maintenance of
the building.
- Reduced Water Consumption: High
efficiency fixtures reduced water consumption by 20% below Energy
Policy Act 1992.
This was
accomplished using water control devices on sink and lavatory
faucets, and auto-sensing electronic controls.
Social and Economic Considerations
With tremendous local support, Nokia established a corporate headquarters,
creating new jobs and opportunities in Westchester. Nokia’s
Global building design guidelines establish sustainable design
as one of the primary goals for their real estate portfolio as
well as their manufacturing processes. With that in mind, pursuing
LEED certification for their first US Corporate Headquarters
was a natural fit.
From the original concept and master plan the budget was always
a prime concern. During the preliminary phase several design options
were explored. Several mechanical distribution options were evaluated
for their cost, impact to ceiling height and operating costs. Throughout
the project, costs were continually analyzed and the final result
was that the project met the Owner’s expectations for their
budget and ongoing operating and maintenance costs.
In conjunction with the client we developed Decision Making Matrix’s
that utilize weighted criteria for evaluating various design options
(Fan Coil Units vs. VAV - Impact to ceiling height/Life cycle cost/First
Cost/etc.).
Complexity
Delivering a high performance building was critical to Nokia’s
definition of success, so although many of the systems are not
visible to the occupant, this building has a reduced effect on
the environment (reduced water and energy consumption; recycled
materials) and has tangible benefits for the employees, day-lighting
strategies and improved indoor air quality through CO2 monitoring.
Achieving the high ceiling heights for daylight penetration and
creating a feeling of openness was expressed as one of the primary
design goals, as was space flexibility. One of the design features
which helped accomplish both of these goals was the installation
of a 6” raised floor throughout the space for power and telecommunications
cabling. Power distribution was zoned using power distribution
boxes below the raised floor so that future moves, adds or changes
could be accomplished using the terminal strips within the power
distribution box without having to run new homeruns back to electrical
closets. This design required special access floor details where
finishes included stone and other high end floor coverings. The
raised floor allowed the engineers to remove the cabling from the
ceiling to reduce congestion and increase the flexibility for Nokia.
Reusing as many of the existing water and fire protection site
services were important to keeping costs down and meeting the construction
schedule, so weekly in-field coordination meetings with the site
contractors and the Syska Hennessy engineers were held to ensure
timely decisions and keep construction on track.
Several of the new technologies utilized were new to the Nokia
staff and contractors. In particular the daylighting strategies
employed were relatively new, so technical briefing were held with
the manufacturers, engineers and contractors so that design intent
was explained, and installation methods and wiring patterns were
displayed for the contractors to ask questions and help streamline
the commissioning and testing of the system.
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