Mechanical
Xanadu Meadowlands Sports Complex
Building A
East Rutherford, New Jersey

Building Statistics

Building Name:
Xanadu Meadowlands Sports Complex Building A

Location and Site:
Route 120 Meadowlands Sports Complex
East Rutherford, Bergen County, New Jersey 07073

The project site is located in the existing Meadowlands Sports Complex.  Within the sports complex stands the Continental Airlines Arena, the Meadowlands Racetrack, the New York Giants stadium and work has begun directly adjacent to the existing stadium for a new football stadium to be completed for the 2008 football season.     

Building Occupant Name:
Xanadu is owned by the Colony Capital in partnership with Duane Real Estate, Credit Suisse, The Mills Corporation and KanAm.  All spaces within the building will be rented by various tenants.

Size:
Building A of the Xanadu complex comprises approximately 553,000 square feet of leasable space of the total 2.5 million square feet that is found in the total project.  Building A is a total of five stories; however the Snowdome ski slope projects from the roof to reach a total height of 150 feet.  In addition to the leasable space, there resides 2255 parking spaces on the lower levels of the building. 

Number of Stories Above Grade/ Total Levels:
Building A has a total of five stories above grade with the Snowdome indoor ski resort skiing slope reaching a total height of 150 feet above grade.

PRIMARY PROJECT TEAM:
Land Owner:
New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority

Owner / Developer:
Colony Capital in partnership with Duane Real Estate, Credit Suisse, The Mills Corporation and KanAm

Design Architect:
Rockwell Group

Executive Architect:
Adamson Architects Inc.

Structural Engineer:
McNamara / Salvia Inc.

Mechanical / Plumbing Engineer:
E & S Construction Engineers

Electrical Engineer:
B & R Electrical Services

Fire Protection Engineer / Code Consultant:
Schirmer Engineering Corporation

Civil Engineer:
T & M Associates

Geotechnical Engineer:
Langan Engineering and Environmental Services

Landscape Architect:
EDAW

Consulting Engineers:
Acer Snowmec Consultants Ltd.

Snowdome Architect:
D’Agostino Izzo Quirk Architects

General Contractors:
Turner Construction Company
The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

Dates of Construction:
Start – June 2004
Planned Completion – November 2008

Cost Information:
Overall Project Cost Estimate:  $2,000,000,000 base price (Tenants spaces are unfinished)

Project Delivery Method:
Design-Bid-Build

ARCHITECTURE:

Design and Functional Components / Construction:
Building A of the Meadowlands Xanadu complex is designated as the sports district.  All sports related retail stores and activities will be housed in this building.  Building A has essential two sections; the south side of Building A will contain all the sporting good stores and restaurants while the north side of the building will be the Snowdome indoor ski resort.

The retail section of Building A will house a wide variety of sporting goods stores that will appeal to all types of sports enthusiasts.  The main attraction of the sports district retail stores will be a 175,000 square foot Cabela’s outdoors sporting goods store.  The Cabela’s will include a large mountain replica with waterfalls and streams, a stocked trout pond for catch and release fishing, a 40,000 gallon freshwater aquarium and a shooting gallery.  Other anchors will include a 20,500 square foot Golfdom golf store and a 27,000 square foot Chickie & Pete’s a crab house restaurant. 

The north section of Building A will house The United States first indoor ski resort named the Snowdome.  The Snowdome will offer visitors a year round skiing experience and will feature ski slopes of varying difficulty and a separate area for snowboarding.  During normal operation the slopes will be comprised of snow laying flat over the distance of the run.  However, during special events the slopes can be made into quarter pipes and jumps can be added for competitions.  Aside from skiing and snowboarding competitions the Snowdome is planned to be used for concerts, fashion shows and parties with a wintery touch.  The Snowdome will house 160,000 square feet of cold side space and will include a novice ski slope at 330 feet long by 120 feet wide and an advanced ski slope at 780 feet long and 150 feet wide.  On the novice slope, two carpet lifts will return skiers to the top of the slope while the advanced slop will have one pull lift and a four seat chair lift suspended from the ceiling.   

The lower levels of Building A will provide 2255 parking spaces contained in four floors of parking garage.

Major Building Model Codes / Standards:
1996 Building Officials and Code Administrators for exterior building
2000 International Building Code New Jersey Edition for interior tenant fit out
All applicable National Fire Protection Association Standards

Zoning:
New Construction zoning by Township of South Hackensack, Bergen County, New Jersey

Historical Requirements:
None

Building Envelope:
The exterior walls for Building A’s retail section are covered with multiple shades of blue, green, white, orange and yellow removable prefinished aluminum composite panels.  Other components of the exterior walls include an air gap behind the aluminum panels, three inches of R-12 semi-rigid insulation mounted held in place through the use of aluminum sub-girts, self-sealing / self-adhering air vapor barrier membrane, ½” exterior grade sheathing with an R-0.5 rating, 8” structural metal studs at 16” on center and the interior finish is 5/8” gypsum board.  The vast majority of the roof for Building A’s retail section is comprised of an EPDM roof membrane, 3 ½” of R-20 rigid insulation and structural deck.

The envelope used for the Snowdome portion of Building A needs to have very high thermal resistance and must be virtually air tight to avoid any infiltration that can cause problems for skiing conditions.  To accomplish this, a complex wall assembly is required.  The exterior is covered with an orange shade of prefinished insulated metal panel system, next comes two layers of 5/8” fire code DensGlass sheathing, 18 gauge 8” structural metal studs at 16” on center, 10” of insulation and moisture resistant gypsum board.  The insulated metal panel system provides complete water penetration protection, a maximum air leakage of 0.06 cfm per square foot of panel area and provides a K-value of 0.127 BTU/hr/square foot/degrees.  The Snowdome roof consists of an EPDM roof membrane, tampered or flat 6” polyisocyanurate rigid insulation, overlayment protection board and a vapor barrier.  A large percentage of the slopes floor is also exposed to the surroundings.  The slope will be covered with 2” of fresh snow, 16” of older compressed snow, 2” metal decking, a glycol piping matrix, 6” of rigid insulation, a moisture membrane barrier, and a cast in place concrete slab.

PRIMARY ENGINEERING SYSTEMS:

Snowdome Mechanical:
The challenge of an indoor ski resort is to ensure that snow can be maintained year round and to maintain a highly controlled environment.  During normal day operation, temperatures must be maintained between 30°F and 32°F.  However at night fresh snow is made on a daily schedule and temperatures must be cooled to approximately 24°F to ensure proper snow making.   The Xanadu Snowdome plans to achieve ideal conditions by using cooled supply air, under floor glycol piping, recirculation coolers and snow guns to provide the best skiing conditions everyday of the year.  

The Snowdome ventilation system is comprised of a single 30,000 cfm air handling unit with 15,000 cfm of the supply air being outside air.  The unit uses a main common intake system with one primary and two secondary cooling coils.  The air is pre-cooled by means of a thermal wheel and then cooled down to above freezing by the primary cooling coil.  The air is then cooled below freezing by the secondary coils which are fed by a cold glycol system.  A hot glycol system line is also fed to the secondary coils and will only be used when the coils need to be defrosted.  The system is fully variable in volume, achieved by using inverters on the fans, to suit the current occupancy.

Two 222 ton electric screw chillers operating at 1.5°F leaving glycol temperature provides the cold glycol to the air handling unit’s coils, under floor piping matrix, recirculation coolers, and snow guns.  Both chillers operate in conjunction with an evaporative condenser located on the roof of the Snowdome mechanical mezzanine which houses all the mechanical equipment.

Mounted along the ceiling of the Snowdome are recirculation coolers and snow guns.  Both devices will be run using the cold glycol system during normal operation.  However, when the devices need to be defrosted the cold glycol system will be shut off and the hot glycol system will be turned on for defrosting.  The snow guns also require compressed air for the use of snow making, therefore a compressed air line will be provided to each snow gun.

Retail Mechanical:
The air side mechanical system for the retail section of Building A uses four roof top air handling units that serve all the common areas of the building.  In Building A, common spaces are comprised of walk ways to the different stores, restaurant, restrooms and a large central area that will create a large atrium for all the levels of shopping.  All tenant spaces will not have any mechanical work done at this time and will be finished by the leaser towards the completion of the building.  All four common area rooftop units are controlled by variable frequency drives with two running modes; occupied mode during normal operating hours and unoccupied mode during the nighttime.  A programmable time clock will control when the occupied or unoccupied mode begins to run.  A thermostat will control the cycling of the supply fan and energize the electric heating coil to maintain the nighttime setback temperature during the unoccupied mode.  During the occupied mode the supply fan will operate continuously.  The use of an economizer to maximize atmospheric cooling has also been implemented for all four of the rooftop units  

Unit A1 serves the first and second floor common areas on the east side of the building and unit A2 serves the first and second floor common areas on the west side of the building.  Both units supply 16,100 cfm of air each with 1,496 cfm of that supply air being outside air.  Each unit’s cooling coil has a capacity of approximately 38 tons and an electric heating coil capacity of 150 kilowatts.  Unit A3 and A4 serve the third floor common areas.  Both of these units supply 31,000 cfm of air each with 3,037 cfm of that supply air being outside air.  Each unit’s cooling coil has a capacity of approximately 78 tons and an electric heating coil capacity of 190 kilowatts.

In addition to the rooftop units, wall mounted electric unit heaters are used in mechanical spaces, entrance vestibules and exit stairways.  Small air condition units are used elevator machine rooms and the main ground floor entrance to supply cooling when needed. 

Electrical:
The complex is powered from existing high voltage electrical lines that run parallel to the adjacent New Jersey Turnpike.  The high voltage lines feed a set of transformers on the west side of the building that will supply power to that side of the building, while another set of transformers are located on the east side to provide power to the east side of the building.  These transformers will step the 26.4 Kilovolt service to a 480/277 Volt, three phase, four wire service that will run to various electrical rooms on the ground floor.  The electrical service covered in the current contract will provide power to the air handling units and will be stepped down by 480 to 280/120 Volt transformers to power the lighting in the common areas.  There will also be unfinished electrical rooms that will provide a place for the individual tenants 480 to 280/120 Volt transformers which will be added at the tenant’s expense towards the end of construction. 

Also located on the west side of the building next to the transformers is a backup generator.  This emergency generator is rated at 1000 Kilowatts, three phase, four wire, 277/480 volts and will provide electricity to building A in the event of a power failure.   

Lighting:
The majority of retail section's lighting is comprised of recessed metal halide down lights with 150 Watt T6 Cool White lamps.  The only lighting fixtures included in this contract are those in the common areas and back of house rooms.  All lighting in leasable spaces will be provided by the tenants near the end of construction.

The Snowdome indoor ski resort’s lighting is comprised of pendant mounted weatherproof metal halide globe fixtures with a 250 Watt lamp.  It is important for the ski resort to be very well lit since skiers need to make split decisions at fast speeds.  For this reason, a power outage and consequently lighting failure can result in injuries.  To assure the safety of skiers, the ski resort lighting is connected to an uninterrupted power supply.

Structural:
The foundation consists of 30 foot concrete piles on the east side of the building while 60 foot piles are used on the west side to anchor the building.  The large piles are necessary due to the fact that the surrounds are classified as wetlands and can create swampy conditions.  The skeleton of the building is comprised of a wide range of W-shape steel beams, columns, and girders.  All floors are composed of poured concrete slabs on composite metal decking.  From the metal decking the load is carried to the beams located directly below the decking, then to the girders that direct the load to the columns and then eventually to the concrete piles.  

Construction:
The Xanadu Sports Complex was a design-bid-build project delivery method.  The design of the complex was completed in December of 2005.  The complex was to originally be completed by Novemeber of 2007.  Construction began by midyear 2006, however financial problems stopped construction right as it was about to begin.  After a new owner was found construction began again with a new target date of November 2008 for a finished completion.  

Fire Protection:
The entire Xanadu Sports Complex will be fully equipped with a fire alarm and sprinkler system.  Throughout Building A wall mounted pull boxes, audible alarms, and strobe lights are located in easy to see areas.  At the sound of the alarm guests will be directed to fire exit stairways that will only be used in the event of an emergency.  There are three of these dedicated exit stairways in the retail section of the building and there is one more located at the top of the slope in the indoor ski resort.  In addition to the fire protection system all floors, exit stairways, mechanical shafts, exit corridors, and columns have a two hour fire rating.     

Transportation:
For the retail section of Building A, two sets of escalators located on every floor in the central atrium will be the means of vertical transportation.  Not far from the escalators are a set of elevators that will also provided access to every floor of stores.  As mentioned in the fire protection section there are also exit stairways, however they will only be used in the event of an emergency.  In the Snowdome, a roof mounted chair left will provide quick access to the top of the main slope while a rope pull will provide access to the top of the smaller slope.