Designed by world-renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano, Kum & Go’s new six-story downtown headquarters will be a virtual piece of art – with striking and clean lines, a mostly glass façade, large overhangs, an architectural antenna rising 180 feet above street level, and abundant outdoor accents and amenities. Mechanical infrastructure for the facility, which includes a two-story underground parking garage, is being provided by Baker Group.

Planning Mechanical Systems Leaves “No Room for Error”
Most buildings allow two- to four-feet of space between the ceiling and roof structure for ductwork, piping and electrical conduit. “That space doesn’t exist in this building,” says Joel Veenstra, Baker Group Project Manager. “To fit all those utilities above the ceiling, we need to thread ductwork, piping and conduit through holes placed in the structural steel.”

Working collaboratively with the structural engineer, Baker Group’s mechanical and sheet metal detailers used building information modeling (BIM) to map out those details with pinpoint accuracy. “It took an enormous amount of coordination. There was no room for error,” Veenstra says.

Robust, Energy-Efficient Systems
Baker Group overcame the structural challenges, enabling the Krause Gateway Center to be supported with simple-but-robust mechanical systems, including a single 125,000 cfm (cubic feet per minute) air handling unit, two 225-ton magnetic bearing centrifugal chillers, two 1,350 gpm (gallons per minute) counterflow cooling towers, variable air volume (VAV) boxes throughout the building, three 3,000 mbh (1000 BTUH) gas-fired high-efficiency boilers, in-floor radiant heat and snow melt at the building’s main entrances.

Because Renzo Piano did not want extra openings in the building’s exterior, “Baker Group became very creative with intake and exhaust locations,” Veenstra says. For example, the parking ramp’s 8-foot exhaust duct travels 15 feet below grade on the building’s north side and terminates inside the mechanical courtyard.

“The amount of effort that goes into planning every detail on this project is staggering, but that is what makes a Renzo Piano project so special,” Veenstra adds.

See some of the remarkable features built into Kum & Go’s new downtown Des Moines headquarters as seen in our video Inside the Project - Krause Gateway Center.