UTC Center for Intelligent Buildings

OWNER

UTC Climate, Controls & Security

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Construction Cost
$83.4 million

Completion Date
January 2018

Project Size
260,000 SF office towers
213,000 SF garage
600 spaces

UTC Center for Intelligent Buildings

Palm Beach Gardens
Florida

This state-of-the-art innovation and technology experience center and building showcase is designed to provide visitors with a new way to interact with current and emerging building technologies. The first floor atrium features products, integrated systems and interactive displays from UTC brands such as Carrier, Otis, Automated Logic, Chubb, Edwards, Kidde and Lenel.

The north and south towers of the building will also serve as a high-tech, modern workspace for UTC employees, including engineering and product development, as well as members of the Otis Americas regional headquarters team and the global corporate headquarters team for UTC Climate, Controls & Security.

The central atrium connecting the towers was envisioned as a fully open space through which visitors can see all 5 floors at once with a multi-story spanning glazed facade. This meant that the east and west column lines would not have the lateral bracing typically provided at each floor leaving these 5-story columns to support a green roof assembly space unbraced. Our team developed specially shaped and reinforced columns in order to support the roof and required hurricane-force wind loads while also meeting the design aesthetic.

Another challenge on the project was presented by the owner’s desire to house the primary showcase area on the second floor of the atrium and the north tower. This area carries extremely heavy loads while also providing open spaces on the first floor below. This required a unique post-tensioning system within the second floor structure capable of spanning 56’ while bearing a load normally borne by spans of half that length.