Z Max Dragway

The Z Max Dragway is located in Concord, NC across the highway from the Lowes Speedway. 

It is the only all-concrete, four-lane drag strip in the United States.  The NHRA will have Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock, and Pro Stock Motorcycle races at the dragway, among others. 

The track, pit area, and midway covers over 46 acres.  Grandstands are on each side of the strip, holding 30,000 people.  There are 24 luxury suites above the main grandstand. 

The starting line tower is the most prominent feature of the Dragway.  It is a 34,000 square foot tower with 16 luxury suites and roof access for guests.

There is a broadcast booth for ESPN announcers and a press box for media members, as well as a control room for race officials.

There is over 6 miles of buried conduit for power and controls for the facility.

Decision Support Solar Energy System

The two story office building in south Charlotte has one of the largest solar photovoltaic systems on a commercial office building in the state of North Carolina. 

It has 109 panels on the roof, each capable of producing 210 watts each, for a total of 22KW of power during peak solar times.  The solar PV system uses lightweight solar panels, SunPower Interlocking Roof Tiles, providing an efficiency ratio of approximately 21%, which is exceedingly high for the industry.

The energy provided to the owner should exceed $5,000 per year!  Not only will it make a positive impact on the environment, the system should pay for itself in about 8 years, and then provide income every year thereafter! 

Ballantyne Village is a large office/retail development in South Charlotte.  It has a parking deck, retail, restaurants, offices, and a theater.  The project was also designed with two future towers (hotel and office) and residential condos to be added in the future. 

The centerpiece of the project is a large “rotunda”, which can be seen for miles.  We utilized color LED fixtures to provide the lighting at night for the exterior of the rotunda.  The lighting design earned an International Design of Merit with the Illuminating Engineering Society for exterior lighting.  Another challenge on the project was the electrical metering. 

The total number of meters could end up being in the hundreds, with a large cost associated with that.  We encouraged the owner to purchase their own metering system, which they did.  It saved a lot of initial construction costs, and will continue to save money every time a new tenant is changed or added to the complex.

This was a corporate headquarters located in Fort Mill, SC.  It was built in a large existing warehouse in order to speed up the construction schedule.  A mezzanine was added for additional space. 

The challenge was to design a class A office space in a “warehouse”, and have it designed and built in an urgent manner.  The project had a substantial data center associated with it, including UPS and generator systems. 

All of the infrastructure was designed with equipment deliveries in mind, as well as meeting the needs of the customer and making it a Class A building.

Time Warner

This is a four-story, 120,000 square foot, corporate headquarters building located in South Charlotte.  This building is the first phase of a campus-style master plan for the company. There is also a parking deck which will be expanded as additional buildings are constructed on the campus. 

The main floor of the building has a large main lobby and consists of executive conference rooms, training rooms and a 10,000 square foot cafeteria and dining area. A separate UPS system was installed for security and communications systems in the building and an extensive telecommunications pathway system was installed throughout the campus for ease of connectivity to future buildings.

Reflection ponds and walking trails were also added around the building as well as a lighted covered path between the building and parking deck.