College Tests Football Lights

College Football LightsBe Light, indeed! After a 30-some-year absence, stadium lights once again light Angell Field, home to the Kalamazoo College Hornet football team. With help from Musco Sports Lighting and Hi-Tech Electric, K is now the first sports stadium in Michigan with LED lights designed to drastically reduce both light trespass and glare outside the College’s property lines. Musco engineers, a City of Kalamazoo inspector, K officials and several neighbors witnessed a test of the lighting system at its highest intensity Wednesday night. All pronounced the finished product a success. K and its lighting consultants will continue to tweak the lights in order to achieve maximum benefit on the field and off. Per an agreement with neighbors and the City, K will use the lights for up to 20 nights annually, almost exclusively for practices that will accommodate Hornet varsity football, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s club ultimate Frisbee and intramural teams. (Wednesday’s test counted as one of those 20 nights.) Thank you, everyone, who worked hard to bring lights back to Angell Field. Lux esto! (text by Jeff Palmer; photo by Susan Andress)

College Breaks Ground on New Wellness Center

Rendering of Fitness and Wellness CenterKalamazoo College celebrated with a groundbreaking ceremony the beginning of construction of its new fitness and wellness center. The ceremony took place at the building site at 4 p.m. (September 24). The approximately $9 million project is funded by gifts made to K’s recently completed fundraising drive, The Campaign for Kalamazoo College.

President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran said that the center is germane to the College’s liberal arts mission. “We focus on the whole student; we focus on the balance of mind, spirit and body.” The center, she added, would be “a common space in which the entire campus community–faculty, staff, students and retirees–can develop healthy life styles through participation in fitness and wellness programs.”

Grace Smith at a podium
Grace Smith ’17 explains what the fitness and wellness center will mean to students.

The 30,000 square foot, two-story center will house the following:

– a weight room and cardio fitness area of sufficient capacity to meet the needs of all students and employees;

– five multi-purpose rooms, as flexible in function as the liberal arts to which they are dedicated;

– two racquetball courts;

– expanded lockers for both the Hornet tennis teams and for general use;

– an office and health assessment room for the campus wellness director; and

– space for the George Acker Tennis Hall of Champions.

The building provides an example of excellence in sustainability. “Our building is designed and will be constructed to the high standards of energy efficiency and resource conservation explicit in a LEED silver rating,” said Wilson-Oyelaran. “And our efforts in this area will be audited by two students who have been hired and trained in LEED certification.”

(Photo by Jessie Fales ’18)

Kalamazoo College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership Earns Awards for Miller-Davis Contractors

Exterior of Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership
Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. Steve Hall (c) Hedrich Blessing.

Miller-Davis Company, a general contracting and construction management firm based in Kalamazoo, has been awarded the 2014 Associated General Contractors (AGC) of Michigan Grand Award for the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (Arcus Center) at Kalamazoo College. The Grand Award is given to the most significant construction project in Michigan.

This is the first time the AGC of Michigan has given out the Michigan Grand Award.

Miller-Davis also received a 2014 AGC Build Michigan Award for the Arcus Center, in the Construction Management New category.

“This unique building is like no other,” said Kalamazoo College Associate Vice President for Facilities Management Paul Manstrom. “The innovative design resulted in the most technically complex construction process I have experienced in my 24 years as the College’s representative for major capital projects.”

Five people standing with an award
Accepting the ACG Michigan awards were (l-r) Miller-Davis Chief Estimator Steve Zimmerman, K’s Paul Manstrom, Miller-Davis Senior Project Manager Michele Wregglesworth, Miller-Davis Senior Project Superintendent Rob Morris, and Miller-Davis President Rex Bell.

Kalamazoo College’s Arcus Center is the world’s first purpose-built structure dedicated to developing emerging leaders and sustaining existing leaders in the fields of human rights and social justice.

The one-of-a-kind $5 million, 10,000 square foot, Y-shaped, steel-frame, single-story pavilion embodies the College’s founding commitment to be a catalyst for positive social change and will serve as the hearth for social justice globally. The building was constructed utilizing nontraditional construction processes with the purpose of fulfilling its principles of economic, social, and environmental justice and is seeking LEED Gold certification.

“Miller-Davis is honored to be part of the construction team for the Arcus Center, which provides a space to study, meet, and host events where students, faculty, visiting scholars, social justice leaders, and members of the public will come together to engage in conversation and activities aimed at creating a more just world,” said the company in a news release.

AGC of Michigan presented the award during AGC’s Annual Meeting on February 20 at the Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan. Build Michigan project entries are judged on: meeting the challenge of a difficult project, excellence in project management, innovation in construction techniques or materials and state-of-the-art advancement, sensitivity to the environment and surroundings, responsiveness to client needs, the contractor’s contribution to the community and exceptional service.

Congrats, to our Miller-Davis partners!

New Arcus Center Building at Kalamazoo College Continues to Attract News Media Attention

Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership Southeast ElevationThe new home of Kalamazoo College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership continues to garner national and even international attention. Print and online publications that focus on architecture and design have been especially interested in the new building. Here’s a partial list of recent articles. We’ll add more as we see them. (Photo credit: Steve Hall © Hedrich Blessing)

arcus center by studio gang provides open forum for social justice
DesignBoom / Dec. 9, 2014

Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership central interiorTimber disks speckle the concave facades of Studio Gang’s Michigan college building
Dezeen / Dec. 9, 2014

Drei Achsen für Gerechtigkeit Pavillon von Studio Gang in Michigan
BauNetz Magazin / Dec. 9, 2014

Pictorial: Studio Gang’s sylvan retreat in Kalamazoo, Michigan
A/N: The Architect’s Newspaper / Dec. 9, 2014

Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership Southwest Elevation

Arcus Center design, construction demonstrate social, economic and environmental justice
Kalamazoo Gazette / Sept. 20, 2014

Stoking a Hearth for Human Rights: The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership in Kalamazoo
New York Times / Oct. 15, 2014
Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership interior lecture space

K Quad Goes “Green” for Commencement

Commencement stage base sits at the bottom of the Kalamazoo College quadAs the Kalamazoo College 2014 commencement day gets closer, Facilities Management, or “FacMan,” has been working hard to get the campus Quad ready for the celebrations in a most sustainable way.

FacMan Grounds Coordinator Victor Garcia ’97 revealed that all the fertilizer used to maintain the Quad for this commencement is 100-percent certified organic matter. The new change comes through a continued effort by the College to be more environmentally sustainable.

“In order to make the Quad more sustainable, we are using all organic fertilizer instead of chemically derived fertilizers,” said Garcia

Garcia asserts that using all organic fertilizer is also self-sustaining in the long run because it modifies the soil to the extent that less fertilizer will be needed to maintain the Quad.

“When you go 100-percent organic, within two to three years the soil will begin to sustain itself. You are creating a biological system, so over time you have to do less and less.”

The new change in approach is not only beneficial for keeping the quad lush and green but also has a greater implication for the entire environment.

“It’s not only about the plant having sustainable nutrition but the surface water that reaches our water supply also becomes less toxic.”

Garcia maintains that even though sustainable approaches such as this might be initially costly, there are savings made in the long run. By using organic fertilizer, for instance, the Quad requires less irrigation, which helps save water and cuts cost. Besides, Garcia believes that sustainable practices “are always worth the economic cost.”

More information on the College’s sustainability efforts can be found here.

Story and photo by Olivia Nalugya ’16

New Arcus Center at Kalamazoo College Attracting Attention

Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership exterior sidingWood is used in one way or another on just about every home or building, from frame to trim, from siding to roof, and to finely crafted accents. But chances are you’ve never seen a building with log “bricks” laid with their circular ends showing, not stacked lengthwise, as you’d see on a typical log home.

That’s about to change.

Construction crews are busy at Kalamazoo College’s newest building, the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, applying a one-of-a-kind cordwood masonry skin to this one-of-a-kind 10,000-square-foot building on the corner of Academy and Monroe streets designed by Chicago-based architectural firm Studio Gang Architects.

The wood is northern white cedar, and comes from a commercial forest in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, says Av Mulder, foreman for Burggrabe B and B Masonry out of Belding, Mich.

Mulder and his masons receive logs that have been cured and cut to size by the building’s construction management firm, Miller-Davis in Kalamazoo. They then form the logs in place with a special mortar that sets slowly to minimize shrinking and cracking.

Placing logs for Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership sidingThe end result is a seemingly random, yet intelligently designed, pattern that Mulder calls “a peak and valley effect.” The construction technique has been employed on barns and sheds in Northern Michigan and Canada for generations. But it’s believed to be the first time that a commercial building in the United States has been built with this type of facade.

Mulder stopped short of estimating how many individual “bricks” might be placed, but did say about 100 cords of wood would be used.

Masons attended a two-day workshop to learn how to apply the cordwood masonry. According to Mulder, a mason since 1971, neither he nor the other masons had ever worked with this technique before. He said his crew must always think about what size log to place next, in order to keep their placement fluid looking. Where the walls of the building bend and curve, masons have to customize the logs even further, making certain their angles correspond to the walls.

“This isn’t like laying a line down and building a wall,” Mulder says. “It’s kind of like working with fieldstone, but you can trim fieldstone. This is all eyeball, always thinking, especially around the windows. It’s like nothing I’ve ever worked on.”

Work has been hampered by the harsh winter the region has endured, but Mulder forecasts that the log-laying could be complete by April.

Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership exterior under construction“Cordwood masonry is an old construction technique that has been updated for a modern building,” says Paul Manstrom, Kalamazoo College associate vice president for Facilities Management. “The students, faculty, staff, and visitors who use the building will find that it’s both inspired by and suited to learning and social justice.”

According to Manstrom, the building is slated for a summertime completion and will be ready for classes in Sept. 2014. The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership will hold its With/Out Borders conference in the new structure in September.

The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership was created through an endowment from the Arcus Foundation. Construction of the Center’s new building is funded through a gift from Jon Stryker, K alumnus (Class of 1982), trustee, and Arcus Foundation founder.

Summer in the Zoo

What do students do at Kalamazoo College during the summer? They are certainly here—some 200 or so. Students from around the world enjoy these hot months on campus. They work as interns, they continue work-study jobs, they spruce up the infrastructure with Facilities Management (FacMan) colleagues, they conduct research in the Dow science building, they dive into the early phases of the Senior Individualized Projects. For fun, they run around, go on adventures, eat great food, and hang out with friends. Here’s what a few students are up to this summer.

Jane Huffman sitting at a desk
Jane Huffman

Meet Jane Huffman ’15, administrative intern for the theatre arts department, splitting her time between Saugatuck (Mich., where she’s working on the plays Xanadu and Game Show) and the Kalamazoo College campus. She has been having some fun cooking home made meals with her housemates and going to see some shows at the local theatres. She will study this fall in Chicago and is sad to be missing the opening festivities of the 50thanniversary season of Festival Playhouse at Kalamazoo College.

Dorraine Duncan sitting at a desk
Dorraine Duncan

Dorraine Duncan ’14 is the student intern at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership.  This summer she has been cooking up an international food storm. The best meal she has made was her own version of the Thai dish “Gra-Pow”. Her friend from Thailand gave her an eight out of 10! Dorraine will soon return to Kingston, Jamaica, for an environmental internship. It will be her first trip home in two years.

Utsav Adhikari driving a cart
Utsav Adhikari and “The Beast”.

Utsav Adhikari ’14 is in his third year on the FacMan recycling crew this summer. On that experience rests his claim to be the “wisest of the FacMan recycling crew.” This summer he went to Irish Fest, one of many summer festivals in downtown Kalamazoo, and had a splendid time. He plays a lot of soccer with neighborhood acquaintances on the Davis Street soccer fields, and chills with friends at the beach in St. Joseph, Mich. At the end of June, he left for an internship at Pinnacle Solutions, a business intelligence company based in Indianapolis, Ind.

Compost Intern Samantha Jolly
Compost Intern Samantha Jolly

Samantha Jolly ’15 holds two positions this summer. She is one of three interns for the Lillian Anderson Arboretum. And she’s the College’s sole summer compost intern. Whatever you might imagine about that second post, Samantha likes both her jobs—minimal supervision! She is her own boss! At three o’clock everyday she heads home to start cooking something delectable; her best meal so far has been her black bean burgers. Every weekend Samantha heads downtown for brunch at her favorite local restaurant, Main Street Café.

Tyler Nichols in the library
Tyler Nichols

Tyler Nichols ’15 has been a busy kid this summer. He works full time as a chef at Henderson Castle, (he prefers the dinner shift). He also has a research stipend from K for an interdisciplinary research project with a political science emphasis. In between work and research he often finds himself at Bell’s Brewing Company or at impromptu block parties in the Vine Street neighborhood.

RA Erika Robles with Sammy Li
RA Erika Robles with Sammy Li

Erika Robles ’14 hails from Costa Rica and just returned to K from study abroad in Japan. In addition to working for FacMan she also serves as Hoben Hall’s summer Resident Assistant. “It’s much more chill in the summer here, with fun small events like barbeques,” she said. She can’t believe how many times she and her friends have made the trek by bus to the movie theater this summer. She has also been enjoying the festivals in downtown Kalamazoo.

Brad Stech
Brad Stech

Brad Stech ’15 is a proud member of the custodial FacMan crew. He stayed over to earn some money before he heads out on his extended-term study abroad (nine months!) in Japan. He likes his job because of the funny and friendly people he gets to work with. In his free time he has been hanging out with friends, playing music, and enjoying sushi from downtown Kalamazoo.

Dakota Clement
Dakota Clement

Dakota Clement ’14 lives with his friends in the Vine Street neighborhood. He is working his third summer for the FacMan grounds crew, and he is also starting preliminary research for his Senior Individualized Project. He is writing a poetry SIP based on nine of his favorite movies from directors Stanley Kubrick and Terrence Malick. These films include Clock Work Orange and The Thin Red Line.

Hadley Harris
Hadley Harris

Hadley Harris ’16 lives only twenty minutes away from K but decided to stay on campus to continue her work-study job in media services. There are not too many media requests during the summer, so the crew has spent a lot of time cleaning the library’s DVD collection. When she can’t stand to be in the humid dorm rooms at night, she heads to the movies with her friends.

Sammy Li
Sammy Li

Sammy Li ’16, a native of China, stayed at K to work for FacMan’s renovation crew. She resides in the Vine Street neighborhood but often thinks about camping out in Hicks Center because of the summer heat! She has gone to the movies a lot, and not just because of the air conditioning. Her favorite films of the summer have been World War Z, The Lone Ranger, and Despicable Me 2.

Reflection, Motor, B-Ball

Two public events of note on the Kalamazoo College campus Friday Jan. 11. And one on Saturday.

“Everyone Has a Steak In It: Implications of How We Eat at K.” The Winter Quarter Week One Community Reflections is co-sponsored by K’s Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Institute for Service-Learning. Join students and faculty as they share personal stories and critically examine how the choices Kalamazoo College makes regarding its food vendor have lasting implications. This motivational, challenging, and informational reflection will explore the intersections and influences of food–including health, culture, race, environment, and accessibility–while inspiring us to speak out and act to create a just food system at K. Stetson Chapel, 10:50 a.m. Refreshments at 10:30. Free and open to the public.

“The Motor of Campus.” This photo exhibit features 26 environmental portraits of K’s Facilities Management, or FacMan, employees. Photos by Sam Doyle ’13, exhibit curation by Eeva Sharp ’12. Reception 6-9 p.m. in the Light Fine Arts Lobby. Free and open to the public.

The K Women’s Basketball team hosts Trine University in Anderson Athletic Center at 3 p.m. Saturday. Inexpensive and open to the public. Go Hornets!

 

Kalamazoo College Will Break Ground on New Building for Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership

Rendering of Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College
Studio Gang Architects rendering of Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College

 

Kalamazoo College will host a ceremonial groundbreaking for its new Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership building on October 9 at 4:00 PM. The ceremony, open to the campus community and general public, will take place on the corner of Academy St. and Monroe St. on the K campus.

The building’s architect, MacArthur Fellow Jeanne Gang, FAIA, founder of Studio Gang Architects in Chicago, will participate along with members of the College community.

Construction for the single-story, 10,000 sq. ft. building is scheduled to be completed in fall 2013 at a cost of $5 million—paid through a generous gift from K alumnus and trustee Jon Stryker.

The Arcus Center building is designed to create a space where K students, faculty, visiting scholars, social justice leaders, and members of the public will come together to engage in conversation and activities aimed at making a more just world.

The building’s three transparent façades—facing the campus, a grove of trees, and the surrounding neighborhood—are connected by curved walls constructed with wood masonry, a regional, traditional building method that incorporates Michigan grown, sustainably harvested white cedar. This is the first instance that this building technique, which is both low-carbon and highly insulating, has been employed for a project at an institutional scale. A LEED Gold certification is the construction target.

Studio Gang (www.studiogang.net), founded in 1997 by MacArthur Fellow Jeanne Gang, FAIA, is a collective of architects, designers, and thinkers whose work confronts pressing contemporary issues. The studio acts as a lab for testing ideas on varying scales: from cities to environments to material properties. Studio Gang’s work has been honored and exhibited widely, most notably at the International Venice Biennale, Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Building Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Ms. Gang and members of her staff will discuss their innovative process of designing a building that facilitates the work of pursuing social justice in a dinner discussion on social justice leadership from 7-9 PM in the Hicks Center banquet room on the K campus. This free event is open to the public, but attendees must RSVP to Arcus Center Administrative Assistant Sholanna Lewis at slewis@kzoo.edu.

The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (www.kzoo.edu/socialjustice) was launched in 2009 with support from the Arcus Foundation (www.arcusfoundation.org), including a $23 million endowment grant in January 2012.

Supporting Kalamazoo College’s mission to prepare its graduates to better understand, live successfully within, and provide enlightened leadership to a richly diverse and increasingly complex world, the new social justice center will develop new leaders and sustain existing leaders in the field of human rights and social justice.

Kalamazoo College (www.kzoo.edu), founded in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1833, is a nationally recognized liberal arts college and the creator of the K-Plan that emphasizes rigorous scholarship, learning by practice, leadership development, and international and intercultural engagement. Kalamazoo College does more in four years, so students can do more in a lifetime.