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March 2001 Feature Story

For many homes television has become our window to the world. We all have our favorite programs. We faithfully watch the ten o'clock news to catch up on today's world events. We take for granted that when we hit that button and turn that dial the NBC Peacock, standing ever so proudly, will show up on the screen. But where does that peacock come from?

Standing at the corner of 455 N. Cityfront Plaza Drive, the 40-story, 1.1 million square-foot NBC Tower plays host to the NBC Broadcast studios, their affiliate WMAQ-TV Radio, and a myriad of other prestigious tenants including Navistar and Brinks Hoffer.

As early as 1985 architects Skidmore, Owings and Merrill began plans for the development of NBC Tower. As part of Chicago's 50-acre Cityfront Center, their initiative was for NBC to harmonize with its nearby neighbors, The Tribune Tower and the Wrigley Building. To accomplish this feat their plans called for the building to be developed along classic lines with a 120-foot, 90-ton steel spire topping off the building. Contractors Morse Diesel International chose Indiana limestone as the most cost-efficient material for the exterior. An aggressive work schedule had the tower completed in 1988, ahead of schedule and below budget.

Guided by Chief Engineer Tom Driscoll and his staff of eight engineers, the team covers the tower 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Because the building is relatively new, reactive maintenance is minimal. Most of the work scheduled is preventive maintenance. An annual preventive maintenance schedule is put in place at the beginning of each year. On each Monday a maintenance report is generated telling the department what work needs to be accomplished that week. They will handle most jobs from adjusting a hot or cold temperature setting for a tenant to changing filters, cleaning cooling towers, greasing fans and changing locks as needed.

An MRI bar code system is used to track all completed barcode work. Each piece of equipment is labeled with its own distinct bar code. As work is completed scanners issued to each engineer on the shift are used to scan the equipment's barcode. At the end of the day all the information is downloaded to the computer where an accurate maintenance history is kept of all work performed on each particular piece of equipment.

While the City of Chicago views the property as one entity, the NBC Tower was designed to function as two separate buildings ? NBC broadcasting and The Tower. With that in mind we will look at each side of the building.

On the Tower side of the building eighteen Otis Elevators transport people between floors. Decorated with mirrors and ornate woodwork, a ride to the floor of your choice is a pleasant experience.

None surpasses the beauty of this building's interior. A 16-foot ceiling graces the green marble and granite lobby greeting tenants and visitors as they enter. Polished bronze fittings lend an air of elegance to an already elegant structure. In keeping with today's technological advances a touch pad directory system is located on the lobby wall enabling visitors to locate any tenant in the building within seconds.

Calling upon Trane? Building Automation Controls Sales Engineer, Gayle VanOstern, a determination was made to equip the building with a total Trane system. A Trane? Tracer 1000 Building Automation System on the Tower side ensures that the HVAC system runs efficiently. Approximately 1000 Variable Air Volume boxes maintain temperature settings. Since all thermostats are read-only in the tenant areas, Chief Engineer Driscoll makes all necessary changes with the Tracer computer located in his office. 1999 brought about an upgrade to the Trane? Tracer Summit? 1000 System. Alleviating any Y2K compliance concerns with the computers, the upgrade brought the building system into the new millennium without a hitch. According to Driscoll, "The system works very well."

A total of six Trane? water-cooled hermetic CVHE Direct Drive CenTraVac? Chillers have been installed. Of these, three 677-ton chillers using R-11 refrigerant service this side of the building. Four air handling units use chilled water coils and plenum heaters. The HVAC equipment is rounded out with 4 supply fans and 4 exhaust/return fans with a total horsepower of 1250.

The NBC Tower is an all-electric building. ComEd supplies power via three main feed lines into the building. One line is used for the office side, one line for NBC and the third for backup. A 12KV service supplies power to 30 new dry-type transformers located in various ComEd rooms within the building. This voltage is then reduced to 480Y/277 and 208Y/120 volts and distributed through switchboards and distribution panels on each floor. In the event of a power failure a 1500kW Cummins emergency generator will handle computers, emergency lighting, etc. until power can be restored. With energy efficiency being the topic of the day ComEd has installed an Energy Tracker system. By monitoring energy usage within the building the electric company knows how much energy is being used on a daily basis. During summer hours should curtailment become necessary it can be accomplished through the Energy Tracker system. Because the building is total electric, this means heating is also run on electric. Perimeter boxes along the windows and floor use Trane? constant volume fan powered boxes with 2-stage electric heating coils.

If walls could talk The NBC portion of the building without a doubt would have a few tall stories to tell. Perhaps the two most talked about shows on daytime TV are taped here daily, The Jerry Springer Show and The Jenny Jones Show. People line up in a glass enclosed patron area unaware of all the equipment necessary to make their audience experience a pleasant one.

The three remaining chillers are allocated to NBC Broadcasting, giving them their own chiller plant. The three chillers, 125- , 250- , and 425-ton respectively, using R-11 refrigerant, service this section of the building. In addition, four air handling units, 5 supply fans and 5 exhaust/return fans with a total of 390 horsepower are in service. Otis Elevator also maintains 4 service elevators as ornately decorated as those in the Tower as well as a freight elevator.

When the building was originally erected a Trane? Tracer 100 Building Control Unit was installed for the NBC section. The NBC broadcasting floors are monitored in much the same way as The Tower but with a smaller Trane? system. Chief Engineer Driscoll and his staff are responsible for maintaining this equipment as well.

As mentioned above one of the three ComEd lines feeding into the building is dedicated to NBC. Because of the nature of the business, a consistent, reliable power feed is essential to this part of the building at all times. Emergency generators located here also ensure that just short of the end of the world NBC will broadcast to its viewing audience.

In the midst of all the preventive maintenance a four-year project is also taking place. The building is currently undergoing a complete re-caulking. One side of the building will be completed each year.

So while our "building within a building" operates its own chiller plant and air handling units, and is supplied electricity through its own dedicated line to floors one through six, there are still a few building systems that it must share. One of those being the domestic water system.

Water is supplied by the City of Chicago through two 12" water lines piped into a main pump room located on the lower level. Liqui-Trol Systems, Inc. installed and maintains a constant pressure type pumping system for the building's domestic water needs with a tap off for the fire pumps. Three fire pumps supply water to six standpipe risers located in different areas of the building. Each riser supplies water to numerous fire department valves located in easily accessible areas on each floor. Risers are equipped with a Siamese connection. This will enable the fire department to make use of an outside water supply should the need arise. Each of these pumps have Fire-Trol control panels and the power supply is backed up by the emergency generator. Fire protection is a priority for Tom and his staff and they make sure that this equipment is running efficiently.

The floors are protected with a typical wet sprinklering system to alleviate potential disasters should a fire break out. The sprinkler system is fed by a standpipe located in the south stairway with isolation valves on each floor used to shut the water supply off in the event of a false alarm. All sprinkler system control valves have tamper devices installed. Main risers and branch lines have flow alarms.

Monitoring all of this is a Simplex Life Safety System located in the main lobby. This system consists of a fire annunciation panel that alerts the engineer of a potential problem and its exact location; a communication system provides speakers in all elevators for communication with stranded passengers; floor speakers enable an individual floor to be evacuated or the entire building if necessary. Rounding out the Life Safety System is a fan status panel, stairway door unlocking controls and a rotating beacon at the southwest entrance. Light panels in the lobby show each elevator and what floor it is on. Security cameras on the reception area desk monitor entrances and the parking garage hallway.

The NBC Tower can stand as proud as it does thanks to its first-class tenants and to the crew that keeps the building functioning at a first-class pace. Responsible for this is Chief Engineer Tom Driscoll. His first job was at the Ritz Carlton. From there he continued his journey to the Mandell Building where he was promoted to the rank of Chief Engineer. In this business for the past 25 years, and currently employed by Cushman Wakefield, property managers for NBC Tower, Tom witnessed the resurrection of the building and has been there since the opening. Tom is married and has a son and daughter. His hobbies, when he finds the time, include boating, golfing and working on old cars. His current collection includes a 1965 Malibu SS, a '67 Corvette and a 1923 T-Bucket. And if that isn't enough, he also works part time for the Rosemont Police Department.

Tom's right hand is filled by Assistant Chief Ken Heklowski. Ken graduated from Northeastern Illinois University with a degree in education. Shifting gears, so to speak, he received his engineering degree from Morton College and began working with Tom at NBC when it opened. Ken is married with one daughter. His hobbies include, fishing, fishing and fishing. Tom's left hand is helped along by shift engineers John Connolly, Mike Faucher, Jason Fischer, Bruce MacKowiak, Ben Adebayo and apprentice Reuben Barajas. And property manager Larry Atkins oversees them all to make sure that when the TV dial is turned on, the peacock stands just as proud today as it did the day before.

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