Eastern Michigan University's new $90 million, energy-efficient addition to and renovation of the Mark Jefferson Science Building is a green design and construction project pursuing LEED silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Designed by Lord, Aeck & Sargent's Ann Arbor, Mich., office, the building features a planetarium/classroom, a green roof, a rain garden, and employs stormwater management and daylighting. Phase 1 of the project, an 80,000-sf addition, was completed in December of 2010. Phase 2 is a complete renovation of the existing 180,000-sf building, originally constructed in 1969. It began in January of 2011 and is targeted for August 2012 completion. The new addition houses the biology, chemistry, geography and geology, physics and astronomy, and psychology departments and includes 36 laboratories on the first two floors with faculty offices on the third through fifth floors. It connects through pedestrian walkways to the Mark Jefferson Science Building.The green roof, part of the project’s natural stormwater management system, helps to retain and treat stormwater. A small plaza for class gatherings on the green roof provides students an opportunity to learn about sustainable building design. A rain garden, or bioswale, improves the building site’s ability to absorb rainwater through the creation of naturalized pre-treatment basins that improve water quality and encourage infiltration. Planted with native plants to look like wetlands, the basins absorb most of the stormwater, and any overflow drains into EMU’s stormwater management system.The EMU Science Complex’ greatest contribution to sustainability may be its reduction of energy use through the design of a dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS) with radiant cooling and a dual energy recovery system. Installed in the addition, but also serving the older building, this is one of the first chilled beam systems in Michigan. An atrium offers a five-story view from the ground floor up to the suspended spherical planetarium/classroom that appears to float from above. Originally intended as a spherical classroom, students in EMU’s department of physics and astronomy now also use it as a planetarium, thanks to the gift of a planetarium projector from the department’s faculty and staff members. Aside from the planetarium/classroom, the atrium itself addresses another EMU goal for the project, to create more interaction spaces for students. The project team for both phases of the EMU Science Complex includes:
- Lord, Aeck & Sargent (Ann Arbor, Mich. office) – architect
- Beckett & Raeder (Ann Arbor, Mich. office) – civil engineer and landscape architect
- Peter Basso Associates (Troy, Mich. office) – MEP/FP engineer
- Robert Darvas Associates (Ann Arbor, Mich.) – structural engineer
- Christman/Dumas (a joint venture of The Christman Company and Dumas Concepts in Building (EMU field office) – construction manager
- AECOM (Detroit office) – program manager
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Lord Aeck Sargent
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