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The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

For some, the mention of the Federal Reserve Bank may bring to mind images of rooms filled with stacks of money, lots of armed guards and Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan pondering whether to raise or lower interest rates. But step inside the stately structure and you'll quickly see that there's much more to the Fed than meets the eye.

The Federal Reserve system itself had a rocky beginning. The first attempt to establish a central bank began in 1791. It started as a political institution and lasted until 1811 when political dissent brought it to its knees. A second attempt was made in 1816, directing the federal reserve towards the private sector. Following the collapse of many financial institutions, this second attempt at establishing a central bank failed in 1836. On December 23, 1913, then-President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law giving us what we know today as the Federal Reserve Bank. Its mission is to foster a sound banking system and a healthy economy.

Twelve Federal Reserve Banks nationwide and numerous sub-branches each serve a specific region of the country. Processing a total exceeding $14 trillion dollars annually, the Federal Reserve has become the "money manager" for the nation. It is here that money is inspected for authenticity and wear and tear; It is counted, and then if fit, returned to circulation. It is here that a balance between too much money and not enough money in the economy is maintained.

Located at the corner of LaSalle and Jackson in the heart of Chicago's financial district, The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago stands stately and proud. Originally completed in 1922, architects Graham, Anderson, Probst and White followed the traditional styling of the other reserve banks. While two major renovations have increased the size of the building to its present 1.2 million square feet, the original ornate marble columns in the building's lobby still stand. Gone is the machine gun turret that was located on the balcony and used to guard the entrance to the building. A simplistic wood design throughout lends a contemporary look to the Federal Reserve Bank while still maintaining an air of elegance. Three atriums invite employees, tenants and visitors alike to marvel at large open spaces ornately decorated with greenery and filled with natural lighting.

To update the mysterious image of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, a renovation of the Visitor's Center is underway. This renovation is part of the Chicago Fed's 2001 focus on improving service to Bank customers. The Chicago Fed is taking action to educate the general public about what the Federal Reserve Banks do and the benefits they provide to the economy. The Visitor's Center, located on the first floor, will feature displays providing interactive opportunities and multimedia presentations.

What most people don't know is what it takes to run an operation like the Fed. From the building itself, to insuring a sound monetary system, to all of the security measures involved in keeping money safe and the procedures for destroying millions of dollars daily, the Fed is truly a unique organization.

Chief Engineer Virgilio Dungo and assistant chief Phil Raddatz work closely with all other departments to ensure smooth day-to-day operations. Because of the importance of the work being done power redundancy is an essential part of the structure. Even with three ComEd lines entering the building the threat of a power failure is ever-present. A lot of thought was put into a business resumption plan in the event of an outage of this kind. Three diesel generators stand ready to provide the building with emergency power should the need arise. One of these is used strictly for life safety equipment, i.e. emergency lighting, minimal elevator use and critical equipment functioning. A fuel storage pumps its contents through the use of gas boosters, to the 19th floor where it is deposited into the 150- and 200-gallon main tanks. A bank of batteries located in a separate room will give the entire building time to shut down critical equipment in the event of a generator failure. Keeping safety measures in mind, a safety shower is located in the room in the event of a battery acid spillage.

In its initial phase, sub-basements were used to house boiler equipment for the building . With the building renovation in 1986 and the invention of smaller, more efficient boilers, the original steam boiler was removed from the basement and new hydronic boilers were installed. Three Stone Johnson hot water boilers maintain the building's hot water at a temperature of 190 degrees. Two "M4HP4000" Cleaver Brooks boilers are used for humidification. Their rated output is 3 million BTUs. An Ecodyne Water Treatment system softens the water before it enters the boiler.

With the advent of computers came the responsibility of keeping the computer rooms cooled for proper operation. Redundancy was again taken into consideration in this area as well. A total of four chillers are in place ready to service the cooling needs of the entire building, operating on a 24-hour day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year schedule. At any one time only two York chillers, a 700-ton using R123 refrigerant and a York 650-ton using R11 refrigerant are in use. Two smaller Carrier units, each 500-ton, are available in the event of a failure of the two main chillers. Located in the chiller rooms are state-of-the-art Freon detection systems. Continual air samples are taken. If any level of Freon is found an alarm will sound indicating a problem in the equipment rooms. Automatic exhaust and supply fans are turned on to purge the contaminated air from the room and replace it with fresh air. The Bank also has a set of Carrier Reciprocating Chiller units that are wired to the generators to ensure cooling of critical computer rooms in the event of a power failure.

Two fan rooms house Variable Air Volume (VAV) fans from Flakt to supply conditioned air to the entire building. A total of six supply fans deliver 105,000 cfm each. To complement this six exhaust fans move air at 90,000 cfm each. To maintain a high degree of air quality control, there are 132 filters in each fan room for a total of 264 main filters. Part of the engineer's job is to change these filters to maintain air quality. The pre-filters are changed approximately 3 ? 4 times per year and the bag filters every 18 months. Two identical fan loops, the east loop and the west loop, supply the building air. They are capable of moving 600,000 cfm of air. The intake air can be heated if necessary in sub-zero weather and outside air dampers can also be turned off although this is not done unless absolutely necessary. A 40% humidity factor is maintained in the Fed building, a difficult task due to the amount of daily activity in this environment. The Federal Reserve finds this to be to maintain proper functioning of the critical equipment. Too much static in the air in the check and cash rooms as well as all the computer rooms could lead to potential equipment failure.

Three separate cooling tower systems are located on the roof. Chemicals for these towers are delivered in concentrated capsules and injected into the system. Supplied by Century Innovations, these antimicrobial chemicals keep the towers from scaling. Chief Virgilio and his staff monitor readings taken daily from the boilers, condenser water and chilled water. Chemical injections are automated to insure the highest level of quality available.

Essential to today's mainstream building, a Barber Coleman Network 8000 building automation system monitors fans, chillers, water temperatures, outside air temperatures, supply and return air, etc. on a daily basis. This information is relayed to computers located in the Chief Engineers office and monitored daily to ensure that the building systems are functioning at maximum efficiency. This system was originally installed around 1985 and has been upgraded since.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago has taken the issue of fire safety very seriously. Two 750-gallon fire pumps stand ready in the event of an emergency. In keeping with the power redundancy issue, and ultimately complying with a new city ordinance taking effect in the year 2003, the Bank is in the process of installing a new generator to be used in part for fire pumps. Paralleling switchgear will be installed with fire pumps given primary standing. This will ensure that while all equipment linked to the generator is shut off in a pre-determined sequence, the last to be turned off will be life safety equipment.

With 1,600 employees, elevators play an important part in the "people movement" in the building. Otis Elevators maintains 23 elevators including a manned express freight elevator. These elevators were originally moved by DC motors and have since been upgraded to computer automation. For this reason, computer rooms here must also be air-conditioned. In the winter outside air is utilized through a fan system.

Keeping in mind that the building bears the word "Federal" in its title, the Protection Department takes security very seriously. Responsible for the safety of employees, visitors and tenants alike, the security control room monitors the entire building 24/7/365 days a year. Considered to be the nerve center of the bank all communications including radio, telephone, fire, smoke, water, motion and camera surveillance are monitored by Protection staff at a console. All doors are alarmed and security must be notified of movement between rooms by the staff. According to Carey Wright, head of the department, security in this building can be a challenge. As a whole he feels his department handles the challenge with the utmost professionalism and is continually enhancing security procedures to keep up with today's every-changing technology. Ample battery backup is supplied to the Protection department systems. In the event of a power failure the staff is well-trained to supply traditional man-power coverage. Coming from a variety of backgrounds, the security staff is armed and trained for manual security measures should the need arise. As mentioned earlier, part of the responsibility of the Federal Reserve Bank is to circulate money into and out of the economy. With this in mind, once money is deemed unfit for circulation, what does the Fed do with it?

A shredding process destroys money removed from. In addition to all the necessary equipment for building functions, the engineering department takes an active part in monitoring the money shredding equipment. One might ask why the money isn't just burned. That would save on space and workload. Chemicals in the ink make the burning process an impossibility. So, pneumatic air transport systems including a Sull Air, Champion and A-1 Air Compressor were installed to facilitate the process of shredding and compacting money deemed to be unfit. A total of five air compressors rated at 25 HP each supply all pneumatic air systems in the building. When asked how the decision was made to purchase this particular brand of equipment, Buildings Operations Manager Mike Sutton relayed that reliability, maintainability and efficiency are the primary goals. "A lot of pre-purchasing work is done simply by networking with other engineers to see what has worked best for them," according to Mike. "We strive to learn from the experience of our colleagues. What drives us more than anything else is the thought knowing that somewhere, someone else is doing something better. We need to find out how to do it best."

Eight rooms within the building handle the actual shredding process creating a lot of dust collection in the equipment. Previously dust elimination was accomplished by collecting the dust into barrel drums that needed to be taken out 2 to 3 times per day. When this process was looked at closely, it was revealed that this method of dust collection proved to be very time consuming for the engineering staff. The current process of dust elimination evolved through close communication within the department to determine the best way to accomplish this process. Presently money is shredded and then transported to the briquetter machine manufactured by Kuster Engineering in the. The briquetter compresses this mixture into logs and transports it to its final destination.

While the engineering department is working to maintain the proper functioning of all the equipment, we must keep in mind the other members of the building's workforce that keep the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago standing so elegant among its neighbors. Carpenters, electricians and plumbers to name a few are all members of the bank staff. They handle the daily, short-term work requests needed to keep the building functioning efficiently. Long-term projects, such as the renovation of the visitor's center now underway, are outsourced. The planning department will put together the construction documents, put the job out for bid, and then work closely with the construction company, architects and engineering department until job completion. Any of the outsourced company's employees working on that particular project will need to undergo a complete background check, fingerprinting process, and carry an identification badge for admittance to the building.

Maintaining the inner beauty of the conference areas is the responsibility of the housekeeping department, managed by Ed Roorda. They handle the set-up and break-down of meetings scheduled in the beautiful conferency facility.

Equally important are the other members of the engineering department: Tito Gotangco, Rich Reske, Tim Kosloskus, Bob Grande, Steve Carter, Petre Varvara, and Scott Spoolstra, Joe McMahon and Walter Dulain. On-staff employees include plumber Jim Mooney, Painter Foreman Sean Ridgeway, Carpenter Foreman John Freeman and Assistant Joe Doolan.

Chief Engineer Virgilio Dungo has been on staff at the bank since 1973. He was promoted to the supervisor's position in 1981. Virg is married with 4 grown children. Currently he resides in Bolingbrook and in his spare time likes to golf, play basketball and loves to vacation. He plans on being with the "fed" for a long time.

Assitant Chief Phill Raddatz has been on staff for 17 years. He is married 29 years, has 2 children and lives in Frankfort. In his spare time he likes to camp and travel. Building Operations Manager, Mike Sutton has been with the bank since 1982. He began his career as an engineer for the bank under the direction of Virgilio. Mike worked his way up the ladder until being promoted to his present position. He and his staff are responsible for the operation of the building and putting together long-term plans to ensure an efficient, effective and safe work environment. Mike is married 15 years, has 2 sons and resides in Evergreen Park. He has a summer home and he and his family like water skiing, basketball and volleyball.

Construction Manager Tom Thyer has been at the bank for 12 years. Prior to this position, he worked for various outside contractors doing work in the building including the York chiller and emergency generators. Since joining the staff at the bank he has been involved in numerous projects including the current renovation of the visitor's center. Tom has been married for 22 years and has three children. His spare time is spent golfing, although not as much as he would like, and helping in coaching activities for the children's sports.

Ray Spoerl, Facilities Planning Manager, is a 29-year veteran of the Chicago Fed. He works closely with Mike and Tom in the planning and construction of bank projects. Ray's staff coordinates all renovation requests. They take a project from initial design through construction drawings to project completion. The entire building team works hand in hand to ensure a smooth operation.

The beauty of the Chicago Federal Bank building makes it a natural attraction for visitors. Standing roud in the city's bustling financial district, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago invetes people to learn about the important role it plays in the Nation's economy. If you would like to learn more about the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago or would like to schedule a tour, contact the public information center at (312) 322-5111. With customer focus their primary driver, the Chicago Fed is truly setting the standard for excellence in the Federal Reserve System.

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