November 9, 2026
What Do Architects Need to Know About Data Centers?
For more than two decades, Woolpert grew to become the third largest data-center-design firm in the U.S. METROPOLIS senior editor Francisco Brown talked to Woolpert’s mission critical market director, Neil Sheehan, about an increasingly essential piece of global infrastructure.
FB: Beyond scale and speed, what has changed most dramatically in the architecture of data centers?
NS: The technological change underway now, aside from the velocity and scale, is the change to liquid cooling of the computers. That may seem like a modest change, but it has implications for the entire configuration of the building and how you think about it.
We’re also seeing changes in backup power, particularly for AI applications that can be turned on and off, a difference from previous generations of data centers. Also, the computer industry buys an amazing amount of diesel generators. Nobody likes them. However, we are beginning to need fewer of them because we don’t necessarily need to maintain that full, 24/7 uptime for a lot of applications. For some projects as well, we’re able to substitute the generator—which comes in a big box—for that same big box filled with batteries.
FB: Just like previous revolutionary infrastructure changed cities, it also disrupted communities in the past. How can architects help address and mitigate the environmental and community impacts of data centers?
NS: There are engineering factors and then community and public factors. The engineering factors are actually very addressable. Take water. We don’t need to use water for cooling.
We’ve had clients expand water treatment facilities in communities or take water returning to a treatment plant and use that water for cooling instead.
One client worked with a municipality to evaluate its water system across the entire community, found all the leaks, and plugged them.
Electricity is another issue. There are instances where the added power demand of a data center can temporarily increase residential power rates. That’s a flaw in the system that sets rates, and the industry is working with those instances to restructure how rates are calculated. In many cases, data center companies are more than happy to pay for the utility upgrades necessary to support the facility, which makes the system around it more robust. In addition, particularly the biggest hyperscale clients we work with, they all have zero carbon commitments. They’ve done extensive solar and wind power purchase agreements across the country.
Noise is another issue we pay attention to more than just about any other because, as architects, we’re responsible for solving that one. Noise is manageable, and the site selection is critical. It’s best not to have homes nearby. Where noise is a severe problem, particularly in urban locations, it can become an architectural solution: Equipment can be placed inside, with acoustic louvers allowing airflow while controlling noise.
FB: What about the broader conversation with communities?
NS: As the industry has grown, we’ve fallen behind on this issue. Across the industry, everybody recognizes it. There’s a growing effort to communicate with communities in a very clear and honest way.
For example, a client of ours, QTS, has a fantastic website to communicate with the community about its plans, show them clearly, answer questions, and address matters as they arise. Community leaders want to be able to say yes to a data center because the revenues and tax advantages can be significant, but they also have to address citizen concerns.
We’re having more meetings with local communities about what can be addressed, what can’t be addressed, and what is ultimately up to the community to decide. Within Woolpert, we’re working to develop resources to support clients with community outreach, public communications, and evaluating the risks of a particular location.
FB: How are you approaching operational and embodied carbon?
NS: A couple of members of our team have been working with a client to evaluate heavy timber construction and stress-skin—essentially, all-wood construction.
What was interesting was that before we embarked on it, we looked at the U.S. supply chain. What we learned was that there wasn’t enough product available to serve the demand we were about to create. So, we started by working on the supply chain and then resolved that into design.
The other aspect is power. Our clients are committed to solar and wind and, to some degree, geothermal. But when they’re doing on-site generation, it’s almost always natural gas. Some clients use fuel cells, which are more carbon efficient than a single-stage turbine generator but less efficient than a dual-stage turbine generator with heat recovery. Those solutions are considered temporary, but there’s no denying that the industry is driving more power demand.
FB: Finally, what do architects need to learn to adapt to this rapidly changing typology?
NS: They’re the things that you learn as an engineer, and they’re based on physics.
We always have a saying in our office: “You can’t fool physics.” You can ask for something, but the physics is going to drive what you’re doing. And then there are the tools. We’ve put so much time, energy, and care into making sure we’re delivering the tools our clients need to have the building constructed.
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