“WE STARTED PAGANINI COMMUNICATIONS because of a request from
one of our large electrical service accounts that wanted the same level of
quali
id service for their telecommunications needs as they w
experi-
encing with our electrical side,” said Michael K. Paganini, owner/president,
Paganini Communications Inc
an Francisco.
rhe company was founded
in 1998 by the team at Paganini Electric Corp,, an electrical contractor in the
San Francisco Bay Area since 1948,
We got
“80s when low-voltage work started becom
ing more of a specialty type of install. It was
‘anew line of business that fit with our eo
pany
Paganini Communications. Andrini has run
the company since 2008 as a separate entity
although it shares office space with Pagapini
Electric Phe communications companyhasan
office staff of five and afield staff that varies
depending on need but has included as many
said Larry Andrini, vice president of
8 24 eld technicians,
‘Many times we're asked t
services as opposed to electrical services and
wide eabling
view versa" Andtini ssi,
That was the case with a project for San
Franeiseo State University (SFSU) for whieh
Paganini installed the cable infrastructure for
the voice data, Internet, Ethernes and wireless
Tewvas completed in 2007 and given ai Award
of Merit by California Construction maga
zine, an honor shared by the owner/project
‘manauger, The Westfield Group and by Hunts
man Architectural Group: engineers Flack &
Kurtz; Swinerton Builders asa subcontractor
«cen
s the electrical subeontraetor to Swinerton
to Westfield: Cupertino Bleetrie Inc
Builders; and Paganini Communications
‘Ic was a high-profile project that we are
happy to have worked on,” Andrini sad,
“SESU
‘town San Francisco largely inthe farm of our
ssalways had a presence in down:
College of Extended Learning?” said Zelind:
Zingaro, director of campus space administra
tion. "Ourlease wascomingup, and we wanted
1bexpand our presence downtown. Adec
‘was made to move our College of Business
Master's Degree Programs downtown, Wit
he requirements for that and forthe College
of Extended Learning, we sought new space in
downtown San Francisco
125134-square-foot
build
ing butin the Westfield San Francisco Centre
the largest urban shopping center west ofthe
Mississippi River,
‘main street, Market Steet, once housed ‘The
Emporium, a department store dubbed “The
GGrandst Mercantile Buildingin she World” at
the beginning ofthe 20h centory: While the
building was gutted it was a new construc
theloeation ofthe ne
‘campus was notin an ordinary offi
The building on the city’s
retained: the 1896 exterior Beaux-Arts facade
and a 102-fo
slome (raised during construction) that now
wide, 1900s steel-andiglass
tops.a200-foot-long atrium,
The San Francisco Centre offered usdirect
aceessto BART [Bay Area Rapid Transit], Muni
[san Fra nical Transit Agency] and
Market Street public transi, excellent parking
options, and unfinished spsce with sufficient
column width that allowed us to build ap
propriately sized classrooms while meeting
[.Jall building code requirements? Zingaro
Peal
rie]5
said. “The historic aspects ofthe
building, combined with the op-
portunity to build out space as
new construction was very at-
‘active and resulted in a truly
remarkablenew downtown cam-
pus for San Francisco State”
‘Two of the university's nine
colleges are at the campus. To-
ether the programs ofthe College
of Extended Learning, the SFS
graduate business programs, and
other SFSU departments and pro-
grams serve up to 1,500 students
perday atthe location, which in-
chudes office and administrative
space, 32 classrooms, five study
ooms and nine computer labs.
Each ofthe computer labs has
15-21 computers. While some of
the SFSU programs at the down-
town campus include computer
classes in which students use the
Internet, Other programs, such
as Digital Video Intensive, make
use of the infrastructure for file
serving, so students and instruc-
tors can share files with greater
cease. The university also recently
implemented Apple Final Cut
server, a collaboration server for
video editing that allows video
files tobe accessed remotely.
‘Tomeetall these computing needs, an extensive telecom-
‘munications network was installed forthe campus,
“In this day and age, telecommunications is very impor-
tant” Zingaro sai.
‘An odd job
“Ttwas an atypical install because ofthe requirements. There
was lot of fiber and copper tothe desktop.” Andrini said
‘The company used approximately nine International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) sound and com-
munications technicians trained in voice/data/video to do
the build-out and used Uniprise Solutions by CommScope
for the cable infrastructure of the voice, data, Internet, Eth
cemet and wireless,
Since the SFSU eampus is situated on the fifth and sixth
floors ofthe center, Paganini ran fiber and copper-te cabling
from the IDF closets on those floors to each of the individual
‘computer labs. A remote satellite
‘closet was built within each lab
“where the networking equipment
was mounted. From those closets,
Paganini ran fiber and copper cf
bles tothe various workstations,
“That design was done specifi-
cally for the SFSU installation s0
that each lab could have its own
stand-alone network and was d
signed with the future in min
‘Andrini sai,
Both multimode and single-
‘mode optical fiber from the SFSU
main telecommunications room
to the building's telecommunica-
installed. Thatallows SFSU to con-
rect to faster telecommunications
services than the DSI. or Tl servic-
ces provided by using the building's
copper twisted-pair backbone tele-
phone cabling.
Future-proofed
‘The fiber cable has been pulled but
{snot connected tothe SFSU system.
‘Therefore, che university willbe able
toupgrade to itlater.
“Asthe Internet speeds up and as
‘we are able to connect to the fiber
network underneath the city of San
Francisco the metro area network, and California, one that ul-
‘imately goes overseas, it willbe significantly faster than what
anybody knowsas the Internet today so that sets us up for that”
said Craig Abaya, director, digital media and entertainment pro-
grams, SFSU, College of Extended Learning
“Things have been putin place that will allow ustobe able to
collaborate, watch video and do many other things much faster
than isthe norm atthe moment? Andrini sid.
‘The installation of Category 6 UTP cabs
outlets and optical fiber eable to some outlets, even though
these capabilites might not have been needed on day one, pre-
pares the university to upgrade the speed oftheir local area
networks. By going to the effort and expense of installing de-
fined eabling pathways (cable tray and conduit, the university
ives itself the flexibility and opportunity to add or change
cables as technology evolves, while causing less disruption to
their facility than might otherwise be the cas" said Michael
‘T Burke, RCDD, associate, Plack & Kurtz San Francisco,
oll telecom
FeRO9 SECURITY*LIFE SAFETY SYSTEMS
°10
‘CommScope Uniprise angled panels
Paganini Communications coordinated with CEL and
certon regarding the routing of both the cable tray, which was
done by CEI, and the cable.
“Design ofthe floor and facility tse was atypical with the
atrium in center of the building” Andrini said, “Prom the fifth
and sixth floors you could walk tothe center ofthe building and
look down into the mall, That meant that it was not atypical
installation because the cable tay had to take a different route
thanone normally taken, due tothe architecture Ithad to goall
‘the way around che perimeter ofthe atrium, as opposed to being
able ocutthrough the center ofthe building. In addition, since
the other trades had installed their equipment prior, the eable
‘ray for the telecommunications equipment had tobe routed in
the ceiling around the equipment built by all the other trades”
‘Then there was the installation of the cable itself,
“The cable infrastructure was a work in progress that in-
volved more coordination with Cupertino and Swinerton due
to the mandated routing ofthe cable tray around the perim-
ter ofthe atrium and the many variable obstacles, such as wall
penetrations, drop and raising of cable tray elevations, tray-t0-
conduit sleeve transitions and fre sealing" Andrini said
‘Specifically, Paganini ran high pair-count eopper cables for
the voice syscems, RG-I coax cable CATY, and fiber optic eable
‘onthe fifth floor From there it dropped down through other
riser closets stacked above each other tothe closet in the base
‘ment. The cables then exited the riser closet and ran dawn the
corridor inthe basement to the main point of entry (MPOE).
Four-inch conduit runs thar were fastened tothe ceiling of the
basement offered access to the MPOE.
Since the ceiling in the basement was 25 fet high and the
run was several hundred feet long, pl eans were installed per
code toallow for the installation of the fiber and copper cables.
Paganini sed 2 man lift so that its technicians could access the
pallcans Paganinialso tested the copper an fiber eablinginfra
structure with Category 6 testing procedures and used a Fluke
DTX1800 cable analyzer
SECURITYSLIFE SAFETY
‘While the SFSU campus did not have to be completed for
the grand opening ofthe building in September 2006—it was
‘completed in January 2007—when it opened, i became part
of the overall $460 million project, a joint venture between
‘The Westfield Group and Forest City Development. The
united 15 million-square-foot, nine-level center is home to
‘Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom and to 170 specialty stores and
boutiques, restaurants an international gourmet marketplace,
anine-sereen state-of-the-art movie theater, 245,000 square
{feet of office space and SFSU,
Busy bees,
Itwasa busy construction situation, More than one hundred
stores and retail establishments were under construction,
simultaneously
“We were building out two floors in he buildingat the same
time as all the retail store, the lobby, the theaters, were being
built. ll the different contractors and trades on-site were ut
lizing the same facilities. Deliveries were to one loading dock
located in an alle in the middle ofthe city. Arrangements for
delivery of materials had tobe arranged two days in advance.
‘We shared the few freight elevators to transport ourselves and
‘our materials?” Andrini sai,
“twas a complicated project Glenn Ashton, Swinerton's
project executive, said, “There were miles of data cables to
every classroom and to classroom tables to accommodate the
needs ofthe students, It was alot more intense than atypical
tenant-improvement project. In the end, everything worked.
Paganini got it done, and when they needed to, they stepped
up and worked overtime to make the schedule” "
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PROJECT PARTNERS
THE WESTFIELD GROUP HUNTSMAN
Owner constuction ARCHITECTURAL,
‘management/general GROUP
contractor Architect
SAN FRANCISCO STATE CUPERTINO ELECTRIC,
UNIVERSITY Inc.
"Tenant Electrical contractor
SWINERTON BUILDERS PAGANINI
(General contractor COMMUNICATIONS,
INC.
FLACK & KURTZ
Communications
Engineer