Designing the Future of STEM Education: Michigan State University's Innovative Teaching and Learning Facility
Michigan State University (MSU) has constructed a state-of-the-art STEM Teaching and Learning Facility that exemplifies innovation, sustainability, and a deep respect for the past. This facility centralizes STEM education, providing a vibrant and engaging environment for students. Housing undergraduate teaching labs in a central campus location, with labs being modular and flexible to respond to changing instructional models and student research projects. The completed building allows the University to consolidate a number of teaching laboratories that are currently dispersed across campus to create a central hub for STEM teaching and learning. The facility represents a significant step forward in STEM education, offering an inspiring and functional space for students and faculty alike.
A Vision for STEM Education
When Michigan State University (MSU) decided to build its first new classroom building in over 50 years, it faced some big decisions about the facility that would house state-of-the-art undergraduate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) classrooms and (wet and dry) laboratories on its East Lansing campus. The land grant the university sought for the first time to centralize these gateway STEM courses under a single roof in order to provide new students with an appealing home base - a vibrant environment that would foster learning and community while bringing significant visibility for STEM at MSU. The STEM gateway courses offered in this teaching and learning facility will serve MSU students pursuing a spectrum of studies, including physics and chemistry, technology and material science. More than 7,000 Michigan State University students walk through the doors of this building each week, giving MSU a chance to raise awareness of an innovative and sustainable building system while providing an enriching learning environment. What began as an overarching goal to improve and enhance the undergraduate learning experience at Michigan State University (MSU) resulted in a historic victory with the completion of MSU’s STEM Teaching and Learning Facility and Shaw Lane Power Plant Renovation and Classroom Addition.
Adaptive Reuse: Honoring the Past, Embracing the Future
With its new STEM Teaching and Learning Facility, Michigan State University is building a future with strong roots in the past. The project is an adaptive reuse of a campus power plant decommissioned in the 1970s. Adaptive Reuse: This project utilized the existing power plant as the central portion of the building, with large additions on the north and south sides.
Historical elements, like a massive original boiler and ash silo, were carefully cleaned and refurbished to provide meaningful touchpoints to the past. A former boiler was reimagined to house an interactive digital art installation, an ash silo was minimally renovated into meeting rooms, metal salvage was upcycled into tables and other furniture, and other interesting relics were repurposed across various art installations. To achieve the adaptive reuse plan, the team coordinated significant demolition and reconstruction of the existing 40,000 square foot power plant, as well as coordinated select architectural components to integrate the historical significance of the building into the overall design and character of the new facility. The level of planning, detail design, and logistics required to safely remove hazardous materials while salvaging artifacts for reuse prior to renovating the space was substantial. To accomplish this, the project team conducted several site investigations and full 3D scans with point mapping of the existing building before starting demolition.
The original plan was to build a separate STEM building adjacent to, but not incorporating the existing power plant. However, when the State of Michigan was able to provide almost $30 million of DTMB funding, MSU chose to incorporate the rich history of the plant as the central piece of this new facility. The adaptive reuse of the former Shaw Lane Power Plant and immersion of existing artifacts contributed greatly to sustainability efforts. The new facility leverages existing shared spaces, structures, and utilities, such as a commons area, loading docks, and mechanical rooms, while also incorporating many historic artifacts.
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Architectural Design and Layout
Encompassing 120,000 square feet (SF) of new construction with 40,000 SF of renovated space, this project, completed by Granger Construction, utilized the existing power plant as the central portion of the building, with large additions on the north and south sides. The layout consists of two mass timber wings flanking the north and south ends of a repurposed power plant. The south wing houses “wet” teaching laboratories for biology, chemistry and material science. The north wing houses “dry” teaching labs for physics and computer science.
Mass Timber Construction: A Sustainable and Innovative Approach
The MSU STEM facility is the first building on campus, and the first in the state, constructed with a newer mass timber framing product called cross-laminated timber (CLT). Mass timber, a group of very large, engineered wood construction materials, is an essential component of Michigan State University’s STEM Facility. Implementing Michigan’s first CLT project and a mass timber facility of this scope brought many challenges. At the project start, there were no CLT manufacturers in Michigan capable of fabrication and execution, and few local firms had the necessary expertise or willingness to undertake the installation. Therefore, the team networked aggressively, contacting vendors across North America, and visiting multiple projects in the Northeast to secure experienced partners early.
The building’s hybrid structural system combines steel with two types of mass timber: glue-laminated timber (or, glulam) columns and beams; and cross-laminated timber (CLT). Both materials consist of layers of dimensional lumber, laminated with adhesive and compression. In glulam, the layers are all in the direction of the woodgrain. In CLT the layers are in alternating directions, which creates panels that are strong in two directions, and able to create sturdy lateral resistance for buildings. The hybrid design features three stories of glulam post-and-beam construction with steel diagonal bracing, and a structural steel penthouse for mechanical equipment. While the roof deck was built with 3-ply cross-laminated timber (CLT), designers chose atypical 4-ply panels for the floors instead of the more traditional 5-ply. This approach allowed them to preserve ceiling space and reduce the volume of wood required while still meeting span and vibration requirements. In the power plant, CLT structural floor decks were used anywhere new walking surfaces were needed, further linking it to the STEM wings.
Mass timber has numerous construction advantages, including prefabrication, quicker installation, and smaller crew sizes. Additionally, the use of mass timber building with mass timber can facilitate forest health and resilience management by increasing demand for wood - including under-used materials. Importantly, mass timber, which has a lower embodied carbon footprint than the materials typically used in large structures, is made from wood - a renewable resource that also (naturally and uniquely) stores carbon.
Sustainability at the Forefront
Mass timber is an advanced design and building technology. The STEM Facility demonstrates the University’s commitment to maximizing its impact while minimizing its carbon footprint. Among other benefits, mass-timber promotes forest health and reduces carbon emissions. The mass timber on this project, made from sustainably harvested FSC-certified Black Spruce, totals 3,082 cubic meters of glulam and CLT which store an estimated 1,856 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2-e). There are other sustainable benefits in addition to those associated with using mass timber - made from a renewable resource - instead of steel and concrete, which are carbon-intensive to produce and transport. While MSU has not published information on the building’s operational energy, the tight connections, combined with building insulation and a glazing on the windows to reduce solar glare and heat, are expected to result in energy efficiencies. This low-E coated performance glass offers an extremely high light-to-solar-heat-gain ratio to help keep interiors comfortable, efficient and bright - an excellent choice to breathe new life into an older building.
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Additionally, the team found significant water conservation opportunities by utilizing an existing 13,000-gallon expansion tank as a water source during interior demolition, abatement, and power washing activities. For demolition, the water was used as dust control. Many conservation organizations including the Nature Conservancy in Michigan, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and the Michigan Forest Biomaterials Institute (MIFBI) are actively promoting mass timber construction and this project has helped serve as a catalyst for additional mass timber construction in the state and beyond. The expectation is that this, in turn, will lead to establishing mass timber/CLT manufacturing in Michigan, which is ideally situated to become a leader in this area due to its abundant forest resources and its manufacturing know-how.
Prefabrication: Enhancing Efficiency and Safety
Granger utilized prefabrication for several different components of the project. The use of offsite fabrication helped reduce material waste, increase site cleanliness and safety, and provided a more controlled and predictable installation process.
- Utility hangers; by the use of trimble, the trades shot the anchors in the deck and marked them with a reference point that corresponded to a pre-fabricated hanger allowing for quick installation.
- Mass Timber Structure; Our entire building structure was pre-fabricated, made of Glue-laminated timber and CLT decking.
Navigating Challenges: Pandemic-Era Construction
This was a large project, with over 150 tradespeople onsite daily at peak times, and a significant portion of construction needed to occur amid the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, the construction industry faced many new challenges from mandatory shutdowns and transitioning to remote work conditions to new site operation and safety requirements. To meet these challenges and ensure everyone’s safety, Granger developed a small task force charged with navigating changing conditions.
The project team also determined the safest way to continue work at MSU STEM was to go paperless. To this end, Granger built and implemented an application that could utilize QR codes for easy check-in across workplaces. This process meant the team could post QR codes at multiple spots across the MSU STEM job site and make the check-in link available remotely for an all-electronic health screen questionnaire. This paperless process lowered transmission risks from physical objects on-site, like paper, pens, etc. It also allowed the team to capture who was on-site and validate that they were cleared to be on the site, and conduct effective contact tracing if necessary. What’s more, the project team reported that during the build it realized efficiencies that could have cut at least four weeks from the project timeline if present from the start.
A Hub for STEM Learning
The completed building allows the University to consolidate several teaching laboratories and classrooms which were formerly dispersed across campus. The facility houses undergraduate teaching labs in a central campus location, with labs being modular and flexible to respond to changing instructional models and student research projects.
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tags: #stem #teaching #and #learning #facility #design
