New Data Center to Open in Spring

George Mason University’s Data Center will move from Thompson Hall to the newly-completed Aquia Building at the start of the spring semester, Facilities Management said.

“Substantial completion will be done by Jan. 28, which means that the electric, mechanical, and building and building systems will be complete,” said Mike Herman, a capital outlay engineer and project manager. “Then there will be inspection, and occupancy permits, and then we move the furniture in. We hope to have a certificate of occupancy by March 1.”

The Aquia Building, located next to SUB I, will also house spillover classroom space for classical and modern languages students, as Thompson Hall, where that department is housed, will be undergoing an extensive renovation.

“By the end of May we’re going to start tearing Thompson [Hall] down,” Herman said. “It was built in 1972. It has asbestos tiles, which aren’t a health risk but need to be removed; antiquated heating and air conditioning; inefficient insulation; an old institutional cinder block style. We’ll be doing an internal demolition beginning this May, we should be finished by May 2011, and we hope people will be able to move in in the fall.”

Over the winter break, workers will begin transferring the computer nerve center that keeps Mason’s e-mail system, Internet service, computational systems, electronic records, and most of its telephone systems working.

“We’ll have to move it in sections,” Herman said. “We’ll establish parallel servers in the new Data Center for some things. Others will be moved on weekends or over the holidays, when no one’s here.”

The Aquia Building will have 50,000 square feet total, with about 7,000 comprising the core computer network of the Data Center and about 18,000 going to offices that will support it.