Designing a Flagship Data Center to Anchor NTT’s Ashburn Campus
At the center of northern Virginia’s “Data Center Alley,” HED partnered with NTT to design VA3, an award-winning flagship facility that establishes the standard for a seven-building master-planned campus in Ashburn. As the first phase of development on the 78-acre site, VA3 was envisioned as both a bold architectural statement and a competitive, high-performance environment for NTT’s retail and wholesale customers.
Spanning 245,000 square feet, the two-story facility integrates 112,000 square feet of raised floor space distributed across six data halls. Each hall is designed for 99.999 percent uptime, supporting a 16 MW critical IT load powered by 33 MW of backup generator capacity. HED’s integrated architecture and engineering team worked closely with NTT to achieve this balance of reliability, efficiency, and flexibility—key characteristics in a market defined by speed and scalability.
The building’s mechanical and electrical systems were designed around waterless cooling technologies that employ pumped refrigerant economizers and condensers. This approach reduces water use while maintaining peak thermal performance, reflecting NTT’s commitment to environmental stewardship and long-term operational resilience. By aligning mechanical and electrical infrastructure with modular principles, HED delivered a facility that can evolve alongside emerging technologies without costly structural modification.
The architectural expression of VA3 communicates confidence and precision. The tilt-wall and steel-framed structure reflects both efficiency and permanence, while a distinctive façade signals the facility’s role as the campus anchor. The front of the building houses 52,000 square feet of office, amenity, and customer support spaces, including lounges, meeting rooms, kitchens, and workout facilities. A dedicated parking area, along with a shipping and receiving dock and long-term storage, supports seamless customer operations. Every detail was designed to elevate the user experience, transforming a high-performance data center into a welcoming and functional workplace for both NTT’s employees and their clients.
Constructed under a negotiated guaranteed maximum price delivery method, VA3 demonstrates how early collaboration and integrated design accelerate delivery while enhancing predictability. The result is a facility that operates at the intersection of performance, sustainability, and hospitality.
With VA3, NTT and HED have established a new benchmark for data center design in one of the world’s most competitive markets. The project stands as both a cornerstone of NTT’s Ashburn campus and a symbol of the company’s global leadership in scalable, future-ready digital infrastructure.
