Data Center Enclosures Are Changing How Mission-Critical Projects Get Built
The growth of artificial intelligence, cloud computing and digital infrastructure is reshaping more than the demand for data centers. It is changing how these mission-critical facilities need to be built. Owners, developers and general contractors are facing increasingly aggressive schedules, complex coordination requirements and a skilled labor market that cannot always scale at the same pace as construction demand. In that environment, the building enclosure has become an important opportunity to rethink the traditional construction process.
For a data center, the enclosure is more than the skin of the building. Getting a facility enclosed, protected from the elements and ready for interior work can influence the entire project schedule. At Klover, we are helping data center construction teams rethink that critical path through prefabricated interior and exterior enclosure systems, supported by BIM coordination, in-house manufacturing and experienced field carpentry.
Moving Data Center Enclosures Off-Site
Traditional construction requires significant amounts of work to happen sequentially in the field. Materials arrive, crews mobilize and assemblies are built piece by piece while teams contend with weather, site congestion, access restrictions and competition for skilled labor. Prefabrication changes that equation by moving more construction into a controlled manufacturing environment.
As highlighted in Klover President Kristian Fields’ recent feature with Global Data Center Hub, Klover is currently prefabricating approximately 200,000 square feet of interior wall panels for a data center project in Eastern Pennsylvania. These panels are being used for electrical room enclosures and measure approximately 24 feet by 12 feet. Each panel leaves Klover’s prefabrication facility with framing and the first layer of fire-treated gypsum board already installed.
Rather than shipping individual components to be assembled entirely in the field, Klover can deliver larger, coordinated assemblies ready for installation. That approach shifts valuable labor away from congested jobsites while creating greater control over production, quality and sequencing.
Scaling Prefabrication for Hyperscale Data Centers
The same strategy is being applied to exterior building enclosures for hyperscale data center construction in Northern Virginia, one of the most active mission-critical markets in the country.
Klover coordinates these exterior wall systems through 3D modeling before manufacturing begins. Steel studs can be roll-formed from coil to the exact lengths required for each panel, while assemblies can be prefabricated with weather barrier systems installed before leaving the facility. The objective is to complete as much coordinated work as practical before the enclosure reaches the project site.
The scale of these assemblies is also evolving alongside the buildings themselves. Panels that might traditionally have measured approximately 20 feet have grown to more than 45 feet tall on Klover’s Northern Virginia data center work, requiring structural steel to accommodate their size and engineering requirements.
For contractors managing demanding data center schedules, larger prefabricated assemblies can fundamentally change how quickly an exterior enclosure progresses. More work happens simultaneously off-site while foundations, structural steel and other activities continue in the field.
BIM Creates Certainty Before Manufacturing Begins
Successful data center prefabrication begins long before steel reaches a roll former or a panel enters production. It starts with coordination.
Klover’s in-house Building Information Modeling, or BIM, capabilities connect design information with manufacturing and field installation. Panel dimensions, structural conditions, penetrations and interfaces with other building systems can be coordinated within a detailed 3D environment before assemblies are fabricated.
This process is particularly important for mission-critical construction, where mechanical, electrical, controls and structural systems must coexist within highly coordinated spaces. Discovering a conflict digitally provides teams with more options than discovering it after a prefabricated assembly reaches the field.
Early engagement therefore becomes essential. When Klover is brought into the process early, BIM, engineering, manufacturing, logistics and installation can be considered as parts of one construction strategy rather than separate activities.
Addressing the Data Center Labor Challenge
Prefabrication alone, however, does not solve every challenge facing the data center industry. These projects still require experienced people in the field.
As data center development expands throughout Northern Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and the broader Mid-Atlantic, contractors are competing for many of the same skilled tradespeople. Klover addresses this challenge from both sides of the project.
Repeatable and labor-intensive work can move into Klover’s prefabrication facility, where teams operate in a controlled production environment. At the same time, Klover provides experienced field carpenters, installation crews, superintendents and site leadership to execute the work once assemblies reach the project.
This combination allows prefabrication and conventional field construction to complement one another. Instead of viewing off-site construction as a replacement for skilled trades, Klover uses it as a way to deploy skilled labor more effectively.
A More Integrated Approach to Data Center Construction
The real opportunity is not prefabrication, BIM or field carpentry independently. It is connecting them.
By bringing BIM coordination, prefabrication, manufacturing, data center enclosures and field carpentry together, Klover creates a more integrated path from early design coordination through manufacturing and final installation. For owners, developers and general contractors, that can mean fewer handoffs, reduced onsite labor demands, greater schedule predictability and a construction partner that understands both the manufacturing floor and the jobsite.
From Eastern Pennsylvania to Northern Virginia and throughout the Mid-Atlantic, Klover is helping redefine how data center enclosures are built and delivered.
Because as mission-critical construction moves faster and becomes increasingly complex, predictability matters more than ever.
Safety. Speed. Certainty.
Certainty is the new currency.™