CODA in Tech Square
Atlanta, Georgia
John Portman & Associates
John Portman & Associates’ Coda in Tech Square is a “Class T” high performance computing center at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Developed by Portman Holdings, the 21 story, 750,000 square-foot mixed-use facility is designed to bring university research and private industry together in one connected space.
The design includes two office towers with a central collaborative core that connects the intellectual capital of Georgia Tech with high tech startups and university spin offs. To encourage engagement, the occupancy strategy is to intersperse the university staff and private entities, fostering collaboration between academia and private industry through adjacency.
VT Solution Compliments Project Goals
Traditionally, a building of this size and height would have a low rise/high rise passenger elevator solution. While the traditional solution met the performance requirements, the two zones resulted in a physical separation that would have negatively affected the collaborative goals.
Low Rise / High Rise Solution
Private Leasing
G.I.T.
Rather than creating separation, the VT solution became a single zone of six hoistways with eleven elevators serving all landings. This solution was made possible by the ThyssenKrupp TWIN® product. The single zone promotes adjacency and collaboration; the entire central core is vertically connected, passengers may travel throughout the environment without making a mid-zone transfer.
In addition to enhancing connectivity, the solution minimises the elevator space take. Instead of twelve hoistways, the building only requires six. The group includes five TWINs® (10 cabs) plus one traditional single deck elevator. The lower TWIN® car will operate at 500fpm, the upper TWIN® will operate at 700fpm.
Low Rise / High Rise Core
TWIN Core
The TWIN® product includes two independent elevators running simultaneously in a single hoistway. It has been installed in multiple projects around the world, Coda will be the first installation in the U.S. The project includes a lower and upper main landing connected by escalators – similar to a double deck design. During peak periods, the lower and upper cars will be zoned to provide the most efficient service to/from the main landings. Persons going to floors 3-12 will board the lower car, persons going to floors 12-21 will board the upper car. During non-peak periods, either the lower or upper car will serve any landing, excluding of course the top and bottom floors.
TWIN is controlled by destination dispatching. This dispatching system ensures the passenger is assigned to the proper car, and includes additional safety features to ensure that the cars do not “conflict” with one another.
While TWIN® was introduced to boost Handling Capacity, this is our second project where the its design fexibility and user benefits have been the most compelling reasons to specify the solution:
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TWIN® does not require fixed floor heights, aka double decks. This translates into a grand lobby with rationalized upper landing heights.
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Tenants leasing multiple floors arrive and board the elevators at the same lobby level. Tenants do not separate to lower and upper lobbies based on an even or odd floor destination.
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The double deck alternate deck loading phenomena is eliminated by detachment of the two decks.
Tech Square has become the Southeast’s premier innovation neighborhood. With the addition of the Coda project, the G.I.T. Tech Square campus will soon total three million square feet of commercial space. The commitment to advancing technology within this development is evident by the adoption of one of our industry’s most progressive technologies.
FS2 was commissioned for design through construction administration.
