David Lust Accelerator Building

Offices & Laboratories | Rapid City, SD

The David Lust Accelerator Building provides building space for start-ups and innovators, acting as an incubator for business ventures primarily focused on technology. In 2018, the program saw a need for a larger, more progressive space. The challenge for the building was the ability to create flexible shell spaces that could be in-filled to suit each startup’s specific needs while maintaining overall building system performance. Also, the ability to change those spaces after the original building’s tenants changed.

Elevate Rapid City, the organization that oversees the facility, wanted the building’s architecture to stand out while also having the backbone equipment in it to provide a functional and flexible facility for the tenants. This is a short-term facility for tenants with a maximum lease period of 3 years, so tenants will always be changing. West Plains provided flexible HVAC, hydronic, and plumbing systems that can change with the needs of both the current and any future tenants.

Although the building did not pursue any energy certification programs, the facility is operating within the predicted facility’s energy use. Also, the addition of the added loads from a couple of new tenants has been seamless.

Notably, West Plains Engineering has since been engaged by several tenants to design their in-fill suites at the David Lust Accelerator Building.