Tech CU Arena, San Jose, CA

Category: Sports and Leisure

Square Footage: 48,500 sq ft

Services Provided: HVAC

Completion Date: 2020

Owner: City of San Jose

Architect: Pillars Architecture

Mechanical Contractor: Silicon Valley Mechanical

General Contractor: Devcon Construction

The City of San Jose has invested heavily in hockey facilities. Tech CU arena is the site for the San Jose Barracuda of the AHL, the San Jose Sharks farm team. The bridge documents included criteria for the filtration and dehumidification of the rink, concession stands and restaurants, locker rooms, and ticketing offices for both Tech CU arena and Grey Rink (sheets five and six of the existing four-sheet ice center).

Pragmatic PE performed engineering load calculations for all systems and design all HVAC systems in 3D building information modeling (BIM) software for coordination with other trades. The images above represent the same view of a modeled portion of the rink to what was actually installed. Note how the duct systems match between the model and the installation. Pragmatic PE engineering teams’ modeling efforts significantly reduced detailer labor because all disciplines were coordinating in the design stage. Documents coordinated in the engineering stage also reduce construction change orders because the drawings represent what will actually be installed in terms of offsets or routing that accommodates other trades.