A 147,000-square-foot data center has taken form during the last sixth months, replacing about three acres of juniper trees in Prineville with tons of steel and concrete, not to mention hundreds of construction workers.
Within the next six months, Facebook plans to complete the initial phases of its first company-owned data center, filling out the skeleton that’s now standing on 124 acres of rural land the company owns off Tom McCall Road.
Though the 125 to 175 construction workers who are on site daily may be gone at the beginning of 2011, when the first two phases are finished, more work could come if membership keeps growing at www.facebook.com, thus requiring the social-networking company to expand the 147,000-square-foot data center — as much as doubling it in size.
“We’ve got to be right in front of our users’ demand,” said Ken Patchett, Facebook’s recently hired director for the Prineville data center. An extension of the main building “has always been in our wheelhouse.”
Data centers are the heart of online computing, pumping tremendous amounts of information every second through and storing it in the computer servers that allow websites to run smoothly. Facebook’s servers host its users’ thousands of pictures, comments and increasing numbers of applications and games, among other information.
Facebook currently rents out space in data centers in California and Virginia, and the Prineville building will be the first company-owned facility for hosting its computer servers. It’s being built in response to its already growing user base.
When Facebook announced the project in January, officials said it had 350 million users. At the end of May, Time magazine wrote that Facebook would soon have 500 million.
Inside the center
As it stands today, the data center is a two-story cement building that can be seen poking above the horizon and smaller structures off state Highway 126. It’s a dusty construction site with enormous piles of dirt, rock and gravel salvaged from laying the building’s foundation.
Though the data center is still a shell, it’s nearing completion at a seemingly exponential rate. Cement walls stand today and roofers are on site, while only steel structural beams were erected two months ago.
Workers this week are installing gateways from the second story of the building that will carry outside air into the center’s core, used to cool Facebook’s rows of servers. Use of outdoor air is a primary reason Facebook chose Prineville. Even during higher summer temperatures, the servers can still be cooled by the air.
“We can easily handle 81 degrees inside a data center,” Patchett said. “That’s why Prineville is actually just a really perfect place.”
The air-cooling system also is a reason the building will qualify for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, allowing the company to save money on air conditioning costs. The rows of computer servers can easily overheat and must be cooled to continuously operate.
While the top floor of the data center will only be used for its cooling system, the bottom floor will hold a lobby, office space for its staff and, initially, two nearly identical rooms for the computer servers.
Those rooms, known as phases 1-A and 1-B of the data center, take up the majority of the 147,000 square feet of the building. Though they’re empty now, save construction equipment, Patchett said he may be able to start installing servers into 1-A by the end of 2010, after construction crews finish it and focus on quickly completing 1-B. That means millions of Facebook users’ communications could begin flowing through Central Oregon after the new year.
The possibility of building two more sections of data center sometime in future years, 1-C and 1-D, is the reason Facebook purchased so much land. Through Vitesse LLC, the entity Facebook used to do its footwork locally, Facebook paid $3.2 million in January for the 124 acres.
“You need to make sure, as a company, that if you need to grow that you have these sites prepared and ready to go,” said Patchett, a former college football player at New Mexico State University who joked that the extra acreage would be used for paintball games. “If Facebook determines that their need is such on the West Coast area to build another building, we’ll have the area to do it. At the end of the day, it saves you money because you’ve thought that far out.”
Power-hungry
Support pillars running from the roof to the building’s concrete floors dictate where the rows and aisles of computer servers will sit. Like in a library, employees who maintain the data center will be able to walk between the rows and monitor each server, about the size of a pizza box, Patchett said.
“There will be an awful lot of servers out there,” he said, declining to give a specific or general number.
All those servers need power to operate, and lots of it. A 2007 Environmental Protection Agency report to Congress estimated that energy consumption by data centers nationally would reach 12 gigawatts annually, the equivalent of the output of 25 baseload, or minimum production, power plants.
Pacific Power is building a switchyard near Facebook’s land, which the company will use to connect power to the building. Through Vitesse, Facebook received a few different electrical permits in April, among a half dozen or so other permits Crook County has approved, including one for a fire sprinkler system last month.
Local impact
Patchett said more than 400 people have taken the safety and orientation class needed to work on the construction. He said 62 percent of those workers are locals.
“They stay home every night,” said Patchett, who was hired away from a job as the manager of Google’s data center in The Dalles. With pressure on Facebook to hire from Central Oregon and Crook County, which has the highest unemployment rate in the state at 17 percent, Patchett is adamant about the impact of any out-of-town hires.
“In general, these hotels are getting an awful lot of business out there,” said Patchett, adding workers are encouraged to buy from local gas stations and restaurants before they head home. Patchett, while trying to sell his home in Hood River to buy another in Prineville, spends five nights a week in a hotel room in Crook County.
Twenty-two of the project’s 34 subcontractors are Central Oregon firms. Patchett said any subcontractors from out of the area have been required to hire workers from local unions.
“Apollo is extremely pleased with the quality of the (local) people we’ve been able to hire, their work ethic and their commitment,” according to a prepared statement from Dan McCormick of Apollo Sheet Metal Inc., a Renton, Wash., subcontractor.
Hiring has started for permanent staff, with Patchett looking for four service technicians and one facilities manager.
Facebook doesn’t have to pay property tax on its new construction because it is building within an enterprise zone, a potentially multimillion-dollar benefit it received in part because of the living-wage jobs the data center will bring. Patchett said Facebook must hire 35 employees within three years, a number to which the company is sticking.
“I’m going to hire according to need,” he said. “It’ll be modular, or phased, I should say, in its growth.”
Patchett said he encourages locals to apply for the permanent positions, adding that Facebook has interviewed local candidates and is interested in training people for entry-level work. Also, security needs to be fully staffed in November, he said, and he’ll need to hire people for housekeeping, landscaping and other mechanical services when the building goes online.
Blending in
Nonetheless, Patchett has worked to blend with the Prineville community. He watched the Crooked River Roundup cattle drive Wednesday from the back of his pickup truck. At the data center site that same day, he wore cowboy boots he said he bought while still working in Northern Oregon.
Likewise, Facebook has made community investments. With its primary building contractor, a joint venture between national firm DPR Construction and Portland-based Fortis Construction, Facebook bought a dental chair for the community Health Department and plans to support Prineville’s Fourth of July celebration, Patchett said. Plus, it plans to start a grant program for local nonprofits and other groups in 2011.
“We’re really wanting to be a part of our community,” he said. “I’m super excited about it.”
Jason Carr, manager of the Prineville/Crook County Economic Development program, said it has been exciting for people to see the building rise during the last few months. He said Facebook’s decision to locate in Prineville has brought a struggling area needed notoriety.
“We’ve had some initial inquiries from businesses that certainly wouldn’t have looked at Prineville without Facebook being here,” Carr said. “The hope is that as time goes on, it will turn into something fruitful.”
Patchett gave Facebook credit for the city of Bend’s interest in an enterprise zone, which it is scheduled to receive starting July 1, as well as BendBroadband’s decision to build a data center of its own within the zone. Although city officials did begin expressing interest in obtaining a zone after the announcement of Facebook, BendBroadband said it planned to build the data center before it knew it would receive property tax breaks for building within the zone.
“I think that it shows in a viable way it changed the game in a rural economy,” Patchett said. “I think this is a really good opportunity and chance to start turning things around.”
The data center has been the target of criticism, however. Some say Facebook didn’t hire enough local contractors, and others complained about it using Pacific Power, which uses coal in its energy mix.
Patchett attributes most of the complaints toward sensationalism, adding that people he meets are happy about the project.
“You’re new, and you’re different. You’re not the same as what people have seen,” Patchett said. “I think we’ve done a really good job out in the community.”
David Holley can be reached at 541-383-0323 or at dholley@bendbulletin.com.
