March 30, 2022 | This week, team members for the Michigan State University (MSU) STEM Teaching and Learning Facility received an Associated General Contractors of America 2022 Construction Risk Partners Build America Award. In addition to this prestigious honor, the team was also selected to receive this year’s Grand Award.
Awards Overview
Build America Awards honor AGC members who “build the nation’s most impressive construction projects ranging across the building, highway and transportation, utility infrastructure, and federal and heavy divisions.” Winning projects are selected from among regional winners, with recent years also including a single, Grand Award recipient. Projects are selected based on demonstrated achievements in state-of-the-art advancement, project management, innovation in construction techniques or materials, safety record, client service, community relations, environmental sensitivity and partnering excellence.
Project Overview
MSU’s STEM Teaching and Learning Facility merged adaptive reuse with flexible learning infrastructure and sustainable mass timber materials to transform the long-abandoned Shaw Lane Power Plant into a state-of-the-art learning space for science, technology, engineering and math. Encompassing 120,000 square feet of new construction with 40,000 square feet of renovated space, this project is the first building in the state of Michigan constructed with a newer mass timber framing product called cross-laminated timber (CLT).
“The technical detail and collaboration that went into designing and constructing this building make it a timeless STEM masterpiece itself,” noted Bill Bofysil, Granger Construction Senior Project Manager. “We had modern tradespeople working alongside artisan skills and masonry from the 1940s. I couldn’t imagine building this building without the technology we have today. For instance, Building Information Modeling (BIM) was essential for being able to visualize and plan for merging mass timber needs with existing artifacts and complex mechanical, electrical and plumbing requirements. The end result is a learning space that literally embodies applied STEM from its foundations to finish work.”
In addition to the AGC Build America and AGC Grand Awards, this project also received an AGC Build Michigan Project Award and Grand Award, along with an Engineering News-Record Midwest Best Project Award of Merit, Forest Stewardship Council Leadership Award, Construction Association of Michigan (CAM) Magazine Special Feature Project Award and the CAM Magazine Project of the Year Award. Click here to read more.
Project Team
Granger Construction is proud to have served as the Construction Management partner for this historic project. Other team members involved include the following:
Owner: Michigan State University
Owner Representatives:
- MSU Associate Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Technology
- MSU College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
- MSU College of Engineering
- MSU College of Natural Science
- MSU Infrastructure Planning and Facilities
- MSU Office of Planning and Budget
- MSU Facility Planning Space Management
Architects/Engineers:
Major Trade Partners:
- Architectural Metals
- Asbestos Abatement, Inc
- Building Controls Integrated
- Christman Constructors, Inc.
- Commercial Contracting
- Couturier Iron
- Detroit Spectrum Painters
- DC Byers
- Dobie Contracting
- Farnell Equipment
- Fessler Bowman
- Gunthorpe Plumbing
- Ideal Steel
- Kirby Steel
- Lansing Glass
- Nordic Structures
- Nicholson Foundations
- RAM Construction Services
- Bornor Restoration
- Schiffer Mason Contractors, Inc.
- Summit Contractors
- TCI Excavations
- Thyssen Krupp Elevators
- Total Fire Protection
- Waldner Equipment
- William Reichenbach Co.
