Michigan State University is committed to making a difference—to their students, to their faculty members and to the world at large. When the University began working with IDS to create a new Bio Engineering facility, they had a goal to create new opportunities to attract and develop the next generation of leading biomedical research scientists. Little did they know that IDS would not only facilitate this goal but would cause a paradigm shift in the way their professors functioned. And, on top of this, they added another MSU hot spot to the project—a commitment to energy savings. The IDS team of engineers and architects built a structure with energy savings 42% better than ASHRAE – far exceeding the MSU sustainability requirement of 20% better than ASHRAE. Now that’s sustainable.
The new 130,000-square-foot facility includes four stories with the two upper floors slated for a future build-out. The initial project was completed in August 2015. The lab facility serves as a centralized brain trust for scientific collaboration in biomedical research including nanotechnology, robotics, tissue engineering and imaging.
Significant to IDS is the commitment to achieve the ultimate level of sustainability. This resulted in an unusual approach to the design development of the project. Often it is the architectural design that leads the engineering process, but here it was an engineering-driven energy model that formed the architecture.
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