The Billings Limited Army Air Support Facility (BLAASF) is a new 56,145 sq. ft., two-story building consisting of helicopter maintenance hangars, service shops, flight operations and planning spaces, administrative offices, physical fitness areas, locker rooms, and other auxiliary spaces. The facility is required to meet the State of Montana High Performance Building Standards and will be LEED Certified, minimum Silver Certification.
The specialty nature of this facility led to some specific MEP/FP requirements, including foam fire suppression systems, HRV hangar ventilation systems, large hangar door track heating systems, specialty security systems for sensitive areas, future planning for full electrification of the facility, specialty equipment for powering up helicopters in the maintenance bays, and an outdoor helicopter wash pad, among others. These systems were designed based on several federal and state design guides for this facility type (DG 415-3, DG 415-5, MT NG Design Guidelines, among others) as well as the standard International Codes in force in Billings.
The building systems included high efficiency low temperature heating water systems, chilled water systems, air handling units with VAV zone control, transpired solar collectors for fresh air pre-heating, a domestic water booster system, a fire pump along with a fire water storage and fill system, shop compressed air systems, backup power systems, high efficiency lighting systems, full IT systems including fiber, horizontal cabling systems and terminations, video surveillance, access controls, lightning protection systems, and IT system cooling with redundancy.
The design effort included campus planning for future buildings including campus and building level utility metering systems, future planning for the campus power, water, natural gas, and IT requirements.
