Master Clock Facility

Ever wonder where time is set?

 

It happens at the United States Naval Observatory (USNO), which serves as the official source of time for the entire country and provides the precise time reference for the entire Department of Defense. Such an exact task requires complete environmental control. But when updates are needed, they have to be completed quickly — and correctly.

In 2004, several buildings at the Master Clock facility that affected the reliability of the clock’s environment were experiencing shortcomings in environmental control. The Navy selected Wiley|Wilson to develop design documents in order to build a facility to house both the existing and any future clock devices. This facility provided the controlled environment necessary to hold the state-of-the-art Rubidium fountain clocks that had been developed to meet operational requirements for continuous operations.

But the company’s work with the Master Clock facility didn’t end there.

Under the Wiley|Wilson Burns & McDonnell Joint Venture, the JV team provided comprehensive architecture and engineering design services for the renovation, repair and replacement of multiple facilities within the Master Clock Complex to support their mission to conduct research and development, test, and evaluate astronomical and atomic clocks and equipment used to collect, analyze, and provide astronomical data, and be the time keeper of the Department of Defense. Prior to the detailed design phase and under separate task orders, our JV team provided initial project planning and programming for the DD1391 funding documents.

Wiley|Wilson was the Designer of Record for architecture, interior design, surveying, civil, plumbing, and mechanical engineering for the design of the new building and renovation of three existing buildings completed under this program.

  • Building 51 – New, 20,000 SF low rise Master Time Clock facility including a mission operations center and Earth Orientation Parameter Center
  • Building 52/52A – Renovation of existing 56,000 SF, 3-story facility into administrative, data processing, and lab space
  • Building 3 – Renovation of existing, historic 2,500 SF facility into an optics lab
  • Building 78 – Renovation of existing, historic 9,400 SF 2-story facility into an optics lab and administrative space

The new Master Time Clock facility houses highly sensitive atomic clock systems. The building is designed to meet Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) requirements due to its mission-critical Time Services and 24-hour operations. Special security features include shielding to protect against High-altitude Electro-Magnetic Pulse (HEMP) around all sides of the equipment rooms. Physical security features also included perimeter anti-ram barrier/fence that matches the observatory architecture and intrusion detection system for the critical area in each building. The mechanical system design included redundant air handling and chilled water systems needed to support the master clocks without disturbing (vibrating) the master clock equipment and maintaining continuous, uninterrupted operations. The facility was designed to maintain extremely stringent indoor environment performance specifications by maintaining temperature of the equipment space within less than 1 degree of tolerance.

Construction Cost: $115.6M