The Van Andel Institute Phase II project was a 240,000 square foot addition to the Van Andel Institute. They are primarily a leader in Cancer Research throughout the country. The job consisted of building an addition to an already existing structure while still maintaining the day to day activities of the people working inside. The job site was limited by space as well as working in a downtown environment. Coordination between the trades was very important and using the BIM coordination method was very helpful when dealing with the different types of systems as well as getting all of the material brought in daily to maintain adequate working space for all of the trades involved. Special attention had to be taken when working on the different systems that were already in place and being used such as the Electrical Services and Mechanical systems.
The project was also LEED Certified and special items had to be taken into consideration when dealing with trash, temporary lighting control, temporary heating systems, and certain materials used on the project. There were also several systems that were installed to provide the building with a “Green” function including a green roof, ivy walls, and a 600-panel photovoltaic system.
The Van Andel Institute (being a research facility) wanted to comply with certain criteria and provide the necessary equipment and systems that would provide redundancy as well as adequate power requirements to stand alone in case of an emergency. These included the following: Wattstopper Programmable Lighting Control system; A complete Building Management System that controlled everything from the Mechanical systems, Lighting systems, Exterior shades, Daylight harvesting, Power monitoring, to Maintenance information; (2) 1750KW diesel Generators; a 10,000-gallon diesel fuel system; Flywheel UPS System as well as (12) stand-alone UPS systems.
The project started in June of 2007 and finished with a small remodel of the existing facility in June of 2010.
Buist Electric was responsible for providing the IT, AV, and Fire Alarm systems as well. Moss Communication was used for the IT, Central Interconnect was used for the AV, and Riverside Intergraded Systems were used for the Fire Alarm system.
