Arkansas Research Technology Park

National Design Build Services (NDBS) provided design and construction services for the Enterprise Center in the Arkansas Research & Technology Park, a research and incubator facility built in joint ownership with private equity firms and the University of Arkansas. The 64,000-square-foot, two-story, LEED Silver building contains two clean rooms and a nanotechnology lab. One tenant is a fast-track leader in high-temperature microprocessor chips.

To address the needs of this facility, NDBS installed two chilled-water air handling units located in the penthouse, served by a high-efficiency, air-cooled chiller. The air handling units incorporate outside air measuring stations to ensure adequate ventilation for Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and proper building pressurization. Each air handler serves a looped supply air duct system on each floor and is interconnected for redundancy in the instance of a fan failure to ensure heating and cooling at all times. The looped ductwork system allows flexibility for future tenant connection and zoning.

The building is equipped with two laboratory exhaust fans connected to a looped exhaust system that serves both floors. Manifold systems provide flexibility for duct layout changes and allow for greater energy savings opportunities with Variable Air Volume (VAV) control.

The Direct Digital Controls (DDC) system offers many features such as night setback, tenant occupancy controls, energy saving strategies, tenant access and security capability, tenant energy monitoring and enhanced temperature, and room pressure control.