EAST LANSING, Mich.— The opening of the new Edward J. Minskoff Pavilion at Michigan State University was celebrated in late September.

The three-story building spans 100,000 square feet that transforms the Eli Broad College of Business into a unified complex that combines modern teaching facilities with contemporary social spaces. Technology integration, classrooms and flexible spaces promote academic and professional excellence

LMN Architects was the architect on this approximately $62-million project that was designed in collaboration with FTCH, OLIN and Clark Construction.

Said LMN Architects Partner Rafael Viñoly-Menendez, “From our first conversations on the project, Dean Gupta expressed a clear vision for the building: a place that would not only foster learning, collaboration and engagement with alumni and the business community, but also a facility that would weave the existing spaces to create a more cohesive “campus within a campus.’ He was equally inspired by the opportunity to connect the interior spaces to nature as an essential element of the student’s well-being. And, above all, the building needed to welcome all students and not be perceived as exclusively a benefit to the business school.”

The building is located within the heart of the university along the Red Cedar River. A central communal atrium is framed by two program “bars” that focus views through the building to the river and landscape beyond. Classrooms, student services and administrative spaces are dispersed through all levels and are arranged around this central social space.

“The atrium was designed to be the ‘heart’ of the Broad College of Business, the place where students can gather, as individuals and a community, to share experiences,” said Viñoly-Menendez.

The atrium provides a new hub for Broad College to host college-wide events, recruitment fairs, informal gatherings and team collaboration, search for drugs. Circulation balconies overlooking the atrium lead to flat/flexible and tiered/case study classrooms for discussions, technology-enabled active learning and networking. A central feature of the atrium are generous amphitheater stairs. The pavilion’s masonry, glass, and metal exterior express the contemporary functionality surrounding campus architecture.

“The Minskoff Pavilion is unlike any other project the university has seen and represents the next phase of higher education,” said Dean Gupta.

“We placed an intentional emphasis on the pavilion’s architecture and classroom designs to enhance the experience that each student will have. Broad Spartans have a new building on campus where they can unleash their creativity and benefit from a space that is focused on collaboration and teamwork.”

The post New Business Complex Completed at Michigan State University appeared first on School Construction News.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University’s future STEM Teaching and Learning Facility will be the first in Michigan to use an innovative wood product, rather than concrete and/or steel, for its load-bearing structure.

Known as mass timber, this framing style uses large solid or engineered wood. The $100 million facility will be constructed of glue-laminated wooden columns and cross-laminated timber, or CLT, a relatively new product for the floors and ceilings.

“As a leading public research university, MSU has the fantastic opportunity to showcase these innovative and sustainable construction methods in the state of Michigan,” said Satish Udpa, MSU’s acting president. “I am delighted to see university operations, including building construction, pull from our state’s history as a lumber leader and mesh with the engineering capabilities of advanced materials.”

CLT is a wood panel made from gluing layers of solid wood at cross-grain to result in a lightweight and strong panel. It’s been used in Europe for more than 20 years, with recent interest in Canada and the U.S., especially on the West Coast.

“We compared mass timber with other framing methods and were intrigued by how far wood has come as a building material,” said John LeFevre, MSU’s Planning, Design and Construction director. “A major advantage is the speed of construction – the panels can be assembled very quickly.”

The new building will be constructed around the former Shaw Lane Power Plant, adjacent to Spartan Stadium. The renovation will include a student science studio space and a vibrant commons area with a cafe. Two new mass timber wings will offer 117,000 square feet of modern teaching labs, responding to STEM course demand, which has increased 40 percent in the last 10 years at MSU. The project architect is IDS with Ellenzweig Architecture, IDEO Design and Sasaki Design. Granger Construction Company is the construction manager.

The pleasing aesthetics of exposed wood also create a warm, inviting and atypical environment for learning science.

“I am excited to see the educational, research and outreach opportunities that the building itself promises to many academic units and to our land-grant mission,” said Ron Hendrick, dean of MSU’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. “It is an interdisciplinary platform encompassing forestry, construction management, biosystems engineering and beyond, and can serve as a catalyst to develop this new technology in Michigan.”

Many believe the MSU building will catalyze additional mass-timber construction in the state, which might lead to establishing CLT manufacturing in Michigan.

“Michigan is ideally situated to become a leader in mass-timber manufacturing,” said Mark Rudnicki, Michigan Forest Biomaterials Institute executive director. “We have abundant forest resources that are managed sustainably and the manufacturing know-how. But there is not a building CLT manufacturer in the central U.S.”

Michigan DNR officials agree.

“Having a CLT manufacturer in Michigan would not only create green jobs using sustainable resources, but also provide the financial resources and incentives that are needed to restore and conserve healthy, diverse and productive forests that provide so many other benefits,” said Debbie Begalle, state forester and chief of the Forest Resources Division of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

The building is slated to open in fall 2020 with classes beginning in January 2021. The wood panels are being manufactured in Quebec and will arrive on campus in April.

The post First-of-its Kind Timber Product to be Used in MSU Building appeared first on School Construction News.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Amongst the many green and sustainable efforts made by Michigan State University (MSU) over the years, the school can now also proudly boast having the largest solar carport in the U.S.

Thanks to Vancouver, British Columbia-based Alterra Power and Inovateus Solar LLC in South Bend, Ind., MSU now has a fully operational 11-MW solar array on five of its parking lots as of Dec. 21. The solar panels are located above 45 acres of carports at MSU, covering more than 4,500 parking spaces across campus.

The solar carports are an investment that the school made with the expectation of saving $10 million over 25 years, after spending just under $2.5 million to connect the solar PV arrays to the MSU electrical system —  less than what MSU would have spent on its other forms of power generation, according to MSU’s online carport initiative.  For the rest of the project, the 1st Source Bank in South Bend, Ind., provided a long-term loan of $19.8 million, and will be paid over time by MSU purchasing the energy generated by the PV array.

Alterra will manage the project, which will sell 100 percent of its power under a 25-year agreement with the Board of Trustees of MSU. Inovateus is the construction manager for the project and will provide operation and maintenance services as well.

The project will bring cleaner air to MSU students and faculty because of the emissions-free generation of electricity, according to Wolfgang Bauer, a university distinguished professor in physics who assisted with the project, in an MSU article on the college’s website. It will also help reduce the university’s utility costs over time, which, in turn, will help keep tuition rates as low as possible, Bauer added.

In addition to these benefits, the solar carports will provide protection from direct sunlight and prevent parked cars from heating up too much in the summer as well as keep parked cars protected from snowfall in the winter. The solar panels will also produce power for the campus during daytime hours when demand is typically at its highest and will generate more than 15,000 megawatt hours of power per year — about 5 percent of the electricity used on campus annually. Finally, the solar carports will be a catalyst for additional renewable projects on campus.

The installation of the massive solar array is consistent with the university’s Energy Transition Plan to invest in sustainable energy research, improve the environment on campus and contain overall energy costs.

Construction of the solar arrays on the five campus parking lots began in March 2017, and work was completed over the spring, summer and fall. The arrays became fully functional and operational in December, keeping with the original timeline projected by the university.

“We’re pleased to complete this project within 2017 — with tremendous thanks to our partners at Michigan State University, 1st Source and Inovateus,” said Jon Schintler, vice president of Project Finance & Development at Alterra, in a recent statement. “We’re looking forward to further growth of our U.S. solar business and many successful years delivering clean power to MSU.”

The post Michigan State University Goes Greener with Solar Carports appeared first on School Construction News.

The new three-story pavilion will feature collaborative learning environments for both undergraduate and graduate students as well as faculty, corporate partners and alumni who will help shape a future generation of business leaders. Seattle-based LMN Architects designed the pavilion in partnership with locally based FTCH, the architect/engineer of record. National construction firm Clark Construction Company is serving as the construction manager.

Broad College Dean Sanjay Gupta said that the new facility’s design will emphasize the importance of training students to work in teams. “We need classrooms where technology is seamlessly assimilated with collaborative spaces,” Gupta said in a statement. “This is the important remaining piece in our efforts to improve the recognition, reputation, and rankings of our programs.”

The pavilion will invite students in with a three-story atrium that serves as the “new front door” of Broad College as well as an open space to host Broad College events, recruitment fairs and collaborative learning. Amphitheater stairs continue that sense of community down to the café, multipurpose rooms and outdoor areas, according to a statement. Plus, its location in the middle of the campus along the Red Cedar River will help connect Shaw Lane and the river walk.

The entire space celebrates Broad College’s community culture and collaborative learning with a variety of classrooms, laboratories and social spaces incorporated at every turn. Natural light from a skylight and clerestory windows that span the full length of the building also enhance the space enough for students to want to stick around for independent study, group projects and informal meetings, according to a statement. Two program “bars” frame the transparent community space, providing views through the building to the landscaping outside. Corridors are designed to overlook the atrium as students walk to tiered classrooms that feature technology-enabled spaces.

The exterior perfectly blends the old and the new with glass and metal finishes that nod to a more contemporary learning environment, while mimicking other aspects of the surrounding campus to pay homage to the past.

The post MSU’s New Pavilion Creates “New Front Door” for Broad College appeared first on School Construction News.

The project includes using carport builders to install solar carports at five different lots across the campus. The carports are projected to produce more than 15,000 megawatt hours of power per year or about 5 percent of the campus’ annual electricity usage, according to the project website. This could mean a savings of $10 million over the next 25 years, helping keep tuition costs down.

“The obvious advantage of this project for our students, faculty and staff is cleaner air due to the emissions-free generation of electricity,” Wolfgang Bauer, a University Distinguished Professor in physics who is assisting with the project, told MSU Today. “However, there are significant other benefits such as reducing the university’s utility costs over time. This, in the end, will have a direct effect on keeping tuition rates as low as possible.”

The structures will cover most of the parking spaces in each lot and will help provide cars with protection from direct sunlight and overheating in the summertime as well as from snowfall in the winter. No existing parking spaces will be eliminated as part of the project.

MSU Board of Trustees members approved a power purchase agreement for the project in September 2015, according to the project website. That agreement is being developed and will be owned by South Bend, Ind.-based Inovateus Solar LLC and Vancouver-based Alterra Power Co. The partnership will allow the university to buy the electricity produced from the solar arrays at a 25-year fixed price.

While MSU will cover the cost (less than $2.5 million) of connecting the solar arrays to the university’s power grid, all other construction and maintenance costs (about $20 million) will be paid for by the investor companies. The solar project is scheduled for completion by December 2017, but the installation could begin producing power as early as this summer.

The post Michigan State Begins Solar Carport Project appeared first on School Construction News.