MSU STEM Facility Connects Nature to Learning and Learning to Nature

Michigan State University achieved something no else in the state of Michigan has ever done – it built a $110 million, 173,000- square-foot educational superstructure using mass timber, specifically cross-laminated timber (CLT). This type of timber is an engineered type of multilayered wood extending in two directions; it has strength, sustainability and is moisture resistant, and it requires no sanding, painting or staining.

The development transformed the long-abandoned Shaw Lane Power Plant into a new instructional space that helps meet increased STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) course demand for MSU students. “Old silos are now conference rooms and the 1964 limestone entrance welcomed the return of Spartan students. Original steam boilers and mechanical hardware are art installations,” according to MSU officials. The adaptive re-use of the power plant makes this one of five buildings in the United States that has undergone such a transformation. The unique building is drawing significant attention in the industry, including from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources – the agency hosted an inaugural Mass Timber Summit to promote more commercialized construction projects like this in the state of Michigan. Extensive additions and renovations were built by Granger Construction Company on the north and south side of the power plant. The 40,000- square-foot, former coal burning facility adjacent to MSU’s Spartan Stadium is gone – but not all of it.

Deciding to Build with Mass Timber

“The idea to adopt a new STEM pedagogy and collaborative learning environment for students started back in 2016,” said Jeff Bonk, MSU Infrastructure, Planning and Facilities (IPF) Project Delivery Manager- Design Manager. “A year later they started the design and brought on partners, members of the campus community, stakeholders, and that’s when the idea to use mass timber as a product came about. With encouragement from the state of Michigan in the form of a grant and support from the Department of Agriculture, we stopped looking at mass timber as a potential way to build and said this is something we are going to do. It’s an innovative product, and what better way to put teaching on display than by using an innovative building product such as mass timber. The biophilic and environmental piece is an added benefit.”

The original state of the wood is a correlation to the concept of this project being a biophilic building. “We left the wood exposed,” said Bonk. “We are also a construction management school on campus, as well as forestry, and environmental sciences, so sustainability is a big thing for MSU. The structure, it is really untouched or unstained, it’s in the original state as it was delivered to us.”

The original state of the wood is part of the biophilic design unique to this building. “Biophilia refers to innate human connection to nature,” said Bill Bofysil, Senior Project Manager at Granger. “Biophilic design is an emerging trend that designers are starting to consider when they put together the building elements. This building is a benchmark for future mass timber and hybrid construction projects.”

According to Wikipedia, the word biophilia originates from the Greek, “philia” meaning “love of.” It means a love of life or living things. The timing of this exemplary biophilic construction model came during the onset of a global pandemic. Delays, challenges and a new way of doing things came along, but in the end, students were welcomed on July 6, 2021, when classes officially re-opened in the new facility. Students are loving their new STEM space, which was designed to connect them to nature while putting teaching and learning on display.

“The last academic building we built was Wells Hall over 40 years ago, so that’s a milestone not just for Granger, but for MSU as well. It’s also one of the first mass timber buildings used as a laboratory,” said Nestor DeOcampo, MSU member of Office of Planning and Budgets; Infrastructure, Planning and Facilities team member, and Data Resource Analyst. Early on, DeOcampo served as MSU’s administrative liaison and was heavily involved in the construction side of the project.

“The mass timber was an initial consideration as a unique feature of the building,” said DeOcampo. “It was under consideration, and we actually had a partnership with Granger to do a cost-benefit analysis. At that time, which was February 2018, steel versus mass timber was equivalent. It was cost neutral. This was brought to the attention of the MSU executive leadership, and at that time we were looking at several different wood products. It was decided mass timber would be a good option to proceed with, giving a unique environment for our students, because this is a student facility. It was something that could be very beneficial to the campus and also forward-thinking with regard to sustainability – a lot of what the university stands for.”

Constructing a Milestone Development

DeOcampo’s description of this project being a milestone might be an understatement. “This building has become an instructional facility, so why not combine instruction in construction as part of that? So, when you enter, you’ll see that everything was left open so that students can see what is the infrastructure? What does it take to provide a facility like this to students?” said DeOcampo.

“There are so many outstanding design elements of the facility, the mass timber, the way the flexible labs and adjacent breakout spaces and circulations spaces support collaborative learning, the visibility of the exposed building systems that make the building itself a teaching tool,” said Jeff Kasdorf, MSU IPF Project Architect. “But for me, the most outstanding feature of the design is how the STEM portion of the facility interacts with the Power Plant. We wanted this contrast between the old and the new to be visible to amplify the difference between where technology has been to where it is going. This theme reoccurs throughout the design.”

The boiler is a perfect example of what Kasdorf mentions. It is something old, but has been re-created into something new. The space connects people to the past in meaningful ways – and that was an intentional design goal. “Everyone gets to experience the boiler whether they are walking through or coming to the back administrative area,” said Tim VanAntwerp, Vice-President of Business Development at Granger. “It’s super industrial and blends the past in a thought-provoking way. People are going to, and already are, asking lots of questions about this building,” he said.

Merging the Past and Present into One Building

“What’s amazing about this adaptive reuse project is the fact that MSU and Granger worked to retain portions of the obsolete boiler plant,” said VanAnterwerp. “When I’m in a space like this, it makes me think about how everything today is so disposable. To be able to take a boiler and transform it into a functioning conference room is astonishing. It would have been so much easier to just tear it down, but to have the inspiration and willingness to keep it, and turn it into a really interesting space is remarkable. Most people take the easy choice these days – they would’ve just torn it apart and thrown it away. There was a lot of intention behind what was left and what was kept.”

Combine biophilia and CLT and you get the interior of the newest, and most environmentally responsible, STEM teaching and learning facility on MSU’s campus. Its biophilic design concept incorporates glass and mass timber for users of the space to experience technology and nature at the same time. Immediately, upon entering the facility, the vast wood, prominent sunlight, openness, and historical elements – such as the metal artifact wall, envisioned by the architect, Integrated Design Solutions (IDS), and implemented by Kasdorf and IPF Shops, on the second floor. It’s an artistically arranged, welded collage of upcycled power plant memorabilia including hand wheels, fixtures, valves, plates and machine components.

Visitors to the building get the sense that they’re in a museum, outdoor café, and nature park all at once. This intentional design of connectivity to natural elements provides students a beautiful, breath-taking space, a desire to remain present, and greater potential to cultivate and develop scholarly minds.

Yes, it appears to be much more than a milestone – it’s an ecosystem and mass timber landmark. It’s a breakthrough for a new way to build in the region. A new way to think about designing and building. “Design is an iterative process,” said Kasdorf. “This facility was designed, refined, and redesigned hundreds of times. At first conception of all the big ideas encouraged and celebrated, and through the iterations the best and most achievable ideas survive while those less practical, affordable, and achievable fall. So, it’s less like concept being constructed, and more like a vision being realized. That opportunity to explore big ideas doesn’t always exist. Sometimes, pragmatics is the only rule of design. We were very fortunate that everyone involved bought into the magnitude of the opportunity early and are extremely proud of the result.”

The preservation of the past is deliberately integrated in some fascinating ways inside the new MSU STEM building that is now serving nearly 40,000 undergraduate learners.

If you can, imagine the people who worked hard to load the hot, dusty, pulverized ash – the leftover byproduct of burning coal – into the 200-foot-tall ash silo. Those individuals could never have dreamed that the silo would one day have a floor built into it, and it would be turned into a cozy conference area for twentyfirst century MSU students to study in, hang out, and collaborate with one another.

The labor of another era can be forever remembered thanks to the forethought and intention by Michigan State University’s Infrastructure, Planning and Facilities team to keep portions of the historic, defunct power plant. The old became the new when MSU mapped out innovative ways to build around its bygone boilers, water tank, and iconic smokestacks. Architects from IDS and Ellenzweig and builders from Granger gave MSU the forward-looking results they envisioned – to convert the decommissioned plant into a newly distinguished and celebrated MSU STEM learning hub.

Bofysil, who worked on site from demolition to completion, admits with a little nostalgia in his voice that the transformation of the cavernous ash silo into a modern, well-lit, technologically equipped student gathering space might be one facet of the adaptive re-use construction project that means the most to him. “The re-purposing of the ash silo is definitely something I’m proud to have worked on,” said Bofysil. He recognized the ash silo’s original 1940s masonry as superb, and it even tells a story about previous styles of workmanship. “But today it’s fragile,” he explained. “The ash silo was just a cylinder shell made of clay block,” he said. “We cut into it and we created this unique space. If, during construction, you destroy a piece, you can’t go get a new piece. The material we were working with is delicate and hollow, so we had to be very careful about how we did the construction around this clay block. The result really puts a stamp on the building.”

Modern tradespeople found themselves working around artisan skills from another time period that did not include technology.

“I couldn’t imagine building this building in the 1940s without the technology we have today,” said Bofysil. “It would definitely take a lot longer. Technology allows us to be efficient with our resources, and it’s a time-saving tool for everybody.” The teams used Building Information Modeling (BIM), which provided three-dimensional visuals of every aspect of the project. Working with mass timber means that steel strapping is necessary to distribute load weight across the floor – the BIM allowed the team to know the precise location to install straps.

The stately MSU STEM structure brings together the historic and contemporary; it’s the best of “then” and “now” under one roof. There is plenty of old concrete and new, and there is a distinct color between the two. “This colored concrete on the first floor outlines where the other boilers were,” said Bofysil. “You’ll see big, dark splotches of colored, polished concrete to show that there was a boiler there. The imperfections help relate it back to the old power plant.” In addition, there is concrete in the lab space that includes old and new – the latter of which had to be installed to complete the floor. There is also CLT timber as part of the flooring, which heightens the beauty.

Identifying work from the past becomes quite noticeable once you know the difference. “You can see the differences between the existing and new steel,” said Bofysil. “If you see rivets on something, that’s the old steel, versus if you see bolts, then it’s new.”

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