Mark Young Construction, Inc.

Client:

Colorado State University

Scope Of Work

CSU Computer Science Building

This was a new 45,600 SF four-story building at CSU. The building houses the Computer Science Department, including faculty and staff offices, classrooms, and conference rooms. The structure is structural steel and masonry with a glass curtain wall on the west side of the building. Construction included raised access floors acting as an under-floor air distribution system (UFAD).

Exterior sunshades minimize summer heat gain while bouncing daylight off interior ceilings to reduce the need for supplemental lighting. Interior supply air is delivered under the floor rather than the ceiling as is the case in conventional construction. This system has the advantage of delivering air where it is needed, at person-level, rather than delivering it at the top of a room wherein the entire volume of the room would need to be conditioned. This allows for lower air speeds which results in reduced fan strength requirements. Similar to the science of a residential swamp cooler, indirect evaporative cooling is an energy-efficient way of providing cooling in the hot, dry Colorado summer. The system includes a way of removing excess humidity so that high humidity levels associated with residential swamp coolers is not a factor.