St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Main Campus Data Center Design, Memphis, TN

Syska Hennessy designed this new 3.4 megawatt data center for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital at its main campus in Memphis, Tennessee. When it was completed the new data center was the primary data center for St. Jude.

The critical infrastructure systems of the new center are consistent with Industry Tier III standards in a concurrently maintainable configuration. Infrastructure for the data hall was sized to support a mixture of high-performance computational biology research, IT equipment, and traditional enterprise-type equipment for healthcare operations.

Design features included continuous cooling for the data hall with mechanical UPS to support the CRAH fans and chilled water pumps; a 5,000 gallon thermal storage tank; and on-site make-up water storage to allow full cooling during an interruption of municipal water supply for up to four days. The three-story structure and MEP components were designed to withstand and continue to function following a Code-level seismic event (Importance Factor = 1.5). The building shell and exterior components were designed to withstand 165 MPH wind loads.