With an increase in enrollment in their business department, Calvin University sought to add onto their existing DeVos Communication Center to create the new School of Business. This new building focuses on student spaces, classrooms, breakout rooms, and shared spaces which demonstrate a commitment to the latest innovations in business.

More conducive to collaborative learning, these spaces provide a flexible, creative, and welcoming environment to foster students in their journey to become excellent, engaged, and faithful leaders of business. The facility and its proximity to other buildings on campus serves as a catalyst for creating innovative new academic programs while continuing to foster connections with other Calvin programs along with the broader campus and community.

For more than 70 years, Unity Christian High School has expanded the mission of their school in fostering faith, increasing knowledge, and developing skills in students to serve God and others. Serving 700 students annually, the school is expected to steadily increase enrollment over the next few years. The high school was constructed on the 110-acre school campus with room to grow for future projects. The new expansion project was proposed to meet the growing demand for space, while still serving the school’s original master plan from 1999.

Sequence I of the high school expansion project will add new classrooms and an expanded Bible classroom to the south wing. The expanded north wing will provide additional space for STEM programs, such as industrial arts, welding, woodworking, CAD/engineering, and robotics. Four existing classrooms will also be renovated into an educational support suite for counseling and student wellness services. A new bridge connector will join the north and south wings of the school together and provide students with additional learning and gathering spaces. The connector encloses an exterior courtyard and creates a separate student area that fosters a feeling of community and inclusion. The connector will include an elevator for equal accessibility and efficiency for all students. This portion of the project began in spring 2023 and is expected to be completed in fall 2024.

In this residential master plan, Calvin University recognized the need to understand the existing conditions and potential opportunity for transformation of the current, on-campus student housing. This plan looks to strengthen the residential experience with contemporary amenities, unit type variety, more indoor and outdoor student gathering spaces, greater accessibility throughout, and a compelling upper division student housing experience.

Drivers for this residential master plan included studying the current condition of the residential offerings at Calvin, understanding new and emerging student preferences, understanding whether there is interest to move more student housing to the campus core, and understanding the impact of future enrollment projections. Our team found that modernization and accessibility were two main considerations in enhancing the student experience at Calvin University. Additionally, small and large gathering spaces that build community at a variety of scales were included in the plan to foster student gathering within residential halls.  

Calvin University has transformed its education system from a college to a university model, expanding its programs to students rooted in a Christian faith. Responding to growth in the health care field, it was important to the University to create a unified school for health-related programs and community leadership that embraces undergraduate students and adult learners seeking to continue their education in health care and health administration.

GMB, alongside Calvin, developed a master plan to better understand the physical space requirements needed to ensure high quality educational experiences for School of Health students, as well as possible funding required to implement the plan and attract students over the next five years.

Haworth Hotel, formerly known as the Haworth Inn & Conference Center, serves as the front door for Hope College and a key part of the institution’s image and identity.

The reimagining of this 36,000-square foot project called on the expertise of stakeholders in architecture, design, and manufacturing. GMB and Perkins&Will’s 2017 campus master plan outlined the essential purpose in reinventing the formerly 47-key hotel – now 48 guestrooms, including a brand-new suite, and 14 conference spaces.

Monroe County Community College (MCCC) is a public community college in Southeast Michigan. Built in 1967, the college serves over 3,000 students. Conventional HVAC systems heated and cooled five original campus buildings with steam and chilled water. In the late 70’s, central steam infrastructure began to break down, leading MCCC to convert to a distributed hot water boiler solution. Recently, the aging chilled water system also began to fail which required the college to utilize a temporary rental chiller to provide campus cooling.  This led MCCC to pursue planning for a long-term solution for the original campus buildings.

MCCC began to evaluate what a new infrastructure system would look like. A newer campus building was running on geothermal heat pump energy, and MCCC felt that this could be a solution for the original campus buildings as well. They desire to be a community leader, setting an example in environmental stewardship. The timing of these improvements also coincided with a bond issue vote to seek funding for facilities and infrastructure upgrades. Looking at alternate energy solutions helped position MCCC as good stewards of resources.