An aging data center JCI chose to retire
In April 2019, Gina Zastrow, a Project Manager for CBRE in New England, was part of an account team dedicated to Johnson Controls International (JCI) and assigned to decommission the JCI data center on Simplex Drive in Westminster, Massachusetts. The data center had exceeded its useful life, and JCI decided to demolish it.
JCI didn’t have in-house capabilities to do the demolition, so Gina hired Quantum Technology to do the asset recovery and interior demo of the data center — and the demolition of a large cooling tower on the roof.
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.”
Clear roles, careful rooftop work
The work was tightly coordinated. Gina’s general contractor pulled the demo permits, did the electrical shut-off and drained the chilled water system, while Quantum provided the crane, riggers, steel roll-offs, rigging equipment, materials and labor — with CBRE facilities manager Mark Hussey providing hands-on supervision. To take down the gargantuan rooftop cooling tower, Quantum laid down material to protect the roof, then disassembled and removed the tower and its frame without causing damage. The data center was taken down to bare floor and walls — broom-swept condition.
From 9,000 SF of raised floor to a rooftop cooling tower, Quantum stripped the facility down to bare floor and walls.
From the floor to the roof
The full data center plus its rooftop cooling plant.
Planned long, executed clean
Months of planning paid off in a short, damage-free execution.
Down to broom-swept
The data center was stripped to bare floor and walls and handed back in broom-swept condition.
A tower off the roof, cleanly
The gargantuan rooftop cooling tower and its frame came down with the roof protected and undamaged.
Coordinated to the detail
Permits, shut-offs and rigging were sequenced across the GC, CBRE and Quantum — the result of four months of planning.
Decommission plus rooftop demolition?
We recover the assets, strip the interior and take down rooftop plant — cranes, riggers and roof protection included — and plan every step before we start.