Technology Upgrades amidst Multi-Floor Renovation

A University Alumni Club engaged Align to assist with the technology consulting, design and implementation of multiple technology upgrades included in the first phase of their renovation project. This phase consisted of a complete demolition and rebuild of three floors in the building, which included banquet and meeting rooms, an industrial kitchen, bar & lounge areas and guest hotel rooms. Although this phase concentrated on these three floors from a construction standpoint, upgrades such as a new IP phone system and Wi-Fi would cause the IT scope of work to include all eleven floors of the building. Many of the desired technologies were new to the management and IT staff and required careful planning and custom solutions.

Align worked closely with the architect and engineer to design a new state-of-the-art Main Technology Equipment Room as well as Intermediate Distribution Frames (IDF’s) on nine of the eleven floors. This new design replaced the existing cable plant infrastructure which consisted of a handful of switches in the IT manager’s office with home run cabling to many of the data locations throughout the entire building and a PBX located on a separate floor. Align worked very closely with all technology disciplines ensuring all cabling and construction requirements were captured during the design phase and the construction management team to ensure these needs were implemented during the construction phase. The network and all servers were successfully relocated to the new Equipment Room within 9 months, followed shortly thereafter by the implementation of the new IP phone system and the decommissioning of the old PBX. The client was extremely pleased with the results of the first phase and Align’s performance throughout the duration of the project.

Align was engaged to assist with the Phase 3 renovations, consisting of the demolition and rebuild of two more floors. Align has been asked to directly manage all technology disciplines and be the direct point of contact for the client’s management team during the planning, design and construction phases.