University of Utah: Frederick Albert Sutton Building

The Sutton Geology Building at the University of Utah is a 92,000 SF, four-story, laboratory building. The building contains classrooms, teaching labs, an 80 seat lecture hall, centralized curatorial and storage areas, shared labs, offices, work spaces, support spaces, and common building services as well as the University Seismology Department along with its monitoring equipment. This building includes all of the specialized systems required in institutional laboratories including: De-ionized Water, Vacuum System, Hazardous Waste Piping, Fume Hoods, UPS System, and Concrete Structure to Reduce Vibration. Due to the vibration sensitive equipment, the building was built with a concrete pan slab and shear wall structure to minimize vibration below 2,000 micro inches per second. A 30-unit fan wall system was used in lieu of two large fans to help reduce vibration throughout the building as well. Electrical Service included dual services, one at 120/208V and the second at 480/277V. This eliminated the need for transformers to be placed in the building. This was designed to help reduce the vibrations transmitted to the building structure.

Project Details

  • Location 115 S 1460 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84112
  • Size: $2,300,000
  • Estimator & Project Manager Chris Joyal
  • Foreman: Tim Ford
  • Date of Completion: February 2008
  • Contracting Company: Gramoll Construction