- Home
- Vivante at Turtle Creek – Assisted Living / Condominium Tower, Dallas, Texas
Vivante at Turtle Creek – Assisted Living / Condominium Tower, Dallas, Texas
This Design Build project provides the design of a 20-story high-rise residential senior living facility to include Memory Care (MC), Assisted Living (AL), and Independent Living (IL) condominiums. This includes 164 AL units, 29 MC units, 2 levels of below grade parking, amenity decks, pools, restaurant/dining, support amenities and office space. The building’s square footage is approximately 375,000 SF.
The mechanical design includes a high efficiency water source VRF system, with heat recovery, that utilizes a building condenser water loop to provide cooling and heating year-round. The condenser water loop utilizes a plate and frame heat exchanger that keeps the cooling tower loop separate from the building loop to help maintain water cleanliness and prevent issues within the building loop. The building also employs a room-direct dedicated to outside air to ensure that ventilation rates are met and to keep a healthy building. The indoor pool has a dedicated dehumidification unit to keep that space free of moisture issues and to help maintain environmental conditions in that space. The large second floor commercial kitchen utilizes two make-up air units to ensure that the space maintains proper pressure relationships and keeps a sanitary environment for cooking processes. In total, the design represents a 25-35% energy use reduction as compared to the ASHRAE 90.1-2010 baseline building of this size for LEED Certified compliance.
The electrical design includes (2) 480/277V three phase and (1) 208/120V electrical services. The (2) 480/277V services feed the parking garage, common/amenity areas, memory care, back of house and emergency loads. The (1) 208/120V service feeds the assisted living and independent living units. Each service runs via bus duct riser and distributes to each floor. Emergency power distribution includes parallel gensets, (1) 750KW natural gas generator, and (1) 1250KW diesel generator for backing up egress lighting, fire alarm system, elevators, IT/data systems, kitchen and HVAC serving AL and MC units. The lighting is comprised of interior and exterior LED fixtures with dimming capabilities including downlights, decorative pendants and direct/indirect troffer style fixtures. Lighting controls consist of a network lighting system with a combination of low voltage switches, touchscreen control and local occupancy sensors with time-of-day functionality based on hours of operation. The project originally investigated micro grid and electric turbine power generation to be self-sufficient and reduce energy costs in lieu of the backup generators; ultimately, the owner decided to maintain gen-sets.
The plumbing design includes domestic water, sanitary, vent and storm piping. The high-rise design utilized a booster pump system for getting domestic water from the ground floor to the 20th floor. Additional building water filter was included on the incoming service to provide cleaner/healthier water to the residents. Gas fired boilers with storage tanks feed hot water to the kitchen and laundry facilities while water heaters with storage on every 4th floor serve hot water to residents. Premium style plumbing fixtures are provided within the building and residential spaces.
The fire suppression design includes full NFPA 13 sprinkler protection of the high-rise building utilizing a high-pressure fire pump and pressure control valves throughout the building. Dry pipe sprinkler systems are provided for areas subject to freezing such as parking decks and covered loading docks. A high-pressure Class I standpipe system was provided in each of the stairwells in accordance with the International Building Code with Dallas amendments. Each of the hose connections on the standpipe system is provided with a pressure reducing feature so as not to exceed the pressure rating of the fire department hoses. Sprinkler main and sub-main layouts are provided in the construction documents for coordination amongst all trades, and full sprinkler layouts are provided to ensure design team influence over the total aesthetic of public and private spaces.
The telecommunication design included a complete distributed telecommunications pathway and wiring infrastructure for telephone, data and television services. Each floor contains a dedicated telecommunications room equipped with data racks, plywood backboards, and cable tray. Cabling extends from this location to all required outlets on the floor which it serves. Dwelling units are equipped with smart boxes which act as distribution point to all the communication outlets within the resident’s suite. Wireless Access Points are located throughout each floor of the facility to provide internet access to residents and staff. PACE conducted a comprehensive predictive analysis using industry leading iBwave software to design the layout of the wireless access points throughout the entire building.
The low-voltage design includes various systems dedicated to specific facility functions as follows:
Emergency Call – A wireless emergency call system is provided to allow staff to respond to the needs of residents anywhere in the facility. A system of call stations located in resident dwelling units and amenity spaces are connected by wireless repeaters located in telecommunication spaces on each floor.
Paging and Background Music System – The common spaces on each amenity level and the corridors on resident dwelling levels are equipped with ceiling mounted speakers for public address. A network of amplifiers provides background music for the amenities spaces through the same system.
IP Video Surveillance System – Video surveillance cameras are located at strategic points around the interior and exterior of the building for resident security. Cameras are connected via cables to network switches in the telecommunication rooms on each floor which they serve. The system uses cloud-based storage for all video recordings.





