Telecomm Buildings and Datacenters

[Tom In Chicago]

I can't believe I haven't discussed this since I've been working in telecomm for over 18 years, but this conversation started in one of the Chicago construction threads about "ugly" AT&T buildings. . . posting the remains of THAT conversation here and figure we could continue the conversation. . .

I break down these two types of utility buildings as either a) Incumbent telecommunications carrier central office, usually serving a geographic region or large city neighborhood housing switch equipment for carrier interconnect; and b) Independent carrier hotel/datacenter, which typically houses switching equipment as well as servers storing data. . . I know I'm oversimplifying this, but it stemmed from the following conversation. . .

Originally Posted by denizen467

As we're talking about these structures, can Tom or harryc or someone say whether the digital revolution and Moore's Law might drastically reduce the space needed for these structures in the next, say, five to ten years?

I see a greater need for datacenter space in the future. . . the "cloud" per-se is what these datacenters house. . .

Originally Posted by denizen467

If voice traffic is transferred to IP and you need only fiber optics instead of endless numbers of copper cables, can we hope for a near future where these all fit in a single room or floor?

IP doesn't equal "fiber optics". . . there's plenty of copper in the ground today. . . it's cheap and we'll find ways to pass IP over it. . . not sure what you mean by fitting all of it on a single room or floor though. . .

Originally Posted by denizen467

I just want to see these faceless buildings (10 S Canal; Washington/Franklin; Dearborn/Illinois) get replaced before I die. Sooner, actually.

These buildings are AT&T (legacy SBC, legacy Ameritech, legacy Illinois Bell) central offices. . . many carriers are collocated within these facilities and switch traffic between each other. . . I don't see them going away in my lifetime. . . but I'm probably older than you so maybe you'll be in luck. . .

Originally Posted by denizen467

Btw, do Washington/Franklin and Dearborn/Illinois house the same kinds of stuff as 10 S Canal?
What about the Western Union structure at Congress/LaSalle?

Washington/Franklin is the AT&T Franklin (CHCGILFR) central office, Dearborn/Illinois is the AT&T Chicago Illinois Dearborn (CHCGILID) central office, 10 South Canal is the AT&T Canal (CHCGILCL) central office (legacy long lines building). . . the Western Union building isn't a Ma'Bell central office with switching equipment, but rather an independent datacenter managed by CRG West (last time I checked). . . similarly the Lakeside Technology Center is run by Digital Realty Trust with many different datacenters inside run independently by Equinix or TElX (although I think TelX simply manages the meet-me room at that site). . .

Feel free to ask me more. . . I'll do my best to answer them. . . also would like to hear from people outside the US who are familiar with these telecomm location. . . I was fascinated by all these Etisalat buildings in the UAE that have giant golf balls atop them. . . I assume it's satellite transmission equipment. . .

. . .

[ardecila]

Interesting. These buildings are (mostly) huge drains on the cityscape, although Washington/Franklin at least has an attractive ornamental facade.

Given the ever-increasing role of telecommunications in modern life, I don't see these going away anytime soon. Even if there has been a reduction in space requirements for the switching equipment, the owners would still presumably want the remaining space to accommodate technological changes (much as hospitals and other medical facilities now devote the majority of their built volume to mechanical systems and not actual floor space).

Has there ever been a push to integrate them better into the cityscape? Ground floor retail space, new cladding materials, etc? Even some murals or vines would be an improvement. I'm guessing these buildings are usually owned and completely paid off, so there is no need to increase revenue by making changes like those. Are these buildings also tax-exempt?

[orulz]

I would be surprised if the majority of the equipment in these buildings is not already IP equipment. To me, as old switching equipment is decommed, rather than tearing them all down, it seems like a fantastic opportunity to find new uses for them. As Tom in Chicago mentions, it's likely that the demand for data center space will increase rather than decrease.

[mdiederi]

Why do they have to be so brutalist? Not that there's anything wrong with brutalism, but a lot of these aren't the good kind of brutalism, they're haphazardly brutalist in nature. And why do they have to be downtown, why can't they be in industrial zones?

[Trantor]

Originally Posted by mdiederi

Why do they have to be so brutalist? Not that there's anything wrong with brutalism, but a lot of these aren't the good kind of brutalism, they're haphazardly brutalist in nature. And why do they have to be downtown, why can't they be in industrial zones?

seems to be an international thing.

this bizarre brutalist building, near Porto Alegre´s airport, is the Banco do Brasil Data Processing Center for the South Region.

built in the 80s


here, at GoogleMaps/Streetview
http://goo.gl/maps/M2rXW

streetview: from this angle, we can see it´s deceiving... all the floors have windows. The two top floors are not really clad with those concrete slabs... the concrete slabs seem to function as "brise soleils", because from below we can see there is a spacement of about 1 meter between the concrete slabs and the windows behind them
http://goo.gl/maps/IR4Aq

[scalziand]

Missed my post, Tom;

Originally Posted by scalziand

That change has already happened, at least on the telco backends. In NY, it allowed the datacenter space in the Verizon building to be reduced and office space substituted. There was also a plan to convert another big ATT switch building to office, but it got snagged in the zoning process.

[ThatOneGuy]

33 Thomas Street, NY (1974)

[Tom In Chicago]

Originally Posted by scalziand

That change has already happened, at least on the telco backends. In NY, it allowed the datacenter space in the Verizon building to be reduced and office space substituted. There was also a plan to convert another big ATT switch building to office, but it got snagged in the zoning process.

Yeah. . . most of these ILEC central offices have had much more equipment in them than they do today. . . there are many floors of some buildings which are vacant. . . as things moved from electro-mechanical to digital, removal of the old cross-bar switches freed up tons of space. . . the Telecommunications Act of 1996 opened up CLEC competition and a lot of space was taken up by collocation[/GROSS OVERSIMPLIFICATION]. . . now that all these switches are moving toward IP, lots of these end office and tandem switches are going away freeing up even more space in these buildings. . .

Someone asked why they needed to be centrally located. . . indeed the utility of the building as a "central" office wire center (copper/fiber cost money per ft/mile) for a geographic area determines that fact. . .

. . .

[scalziand]

I was out of date, it looks like 375 Pearl will be getting some office space after all.

NEW YORK | 375 Pearl St (Verizon) | Renovation

Originally Posted by ThatOneGuy

33 Thomas Street, NY (1974)

Clearly the best one in NY.