Originally constructed in 1976, the GRCC Ford Natatorium is being transformed from an underutilized aquatic space into a modern fitness and recreation center designed to meet the evolving needs of GRCC students, faculty, staff, and the community.

The new recreation center will include an indoor turf gymnasium, fitness areas, student lounge spaces, athletic offices, a nutrition center, Zoom rooms, and multipurpose spaces designed for collaboration. Additionally, the concept of a “third place” offers students a welcoming space beyond academics, enhancing connections across campus.

Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC) has offered classes on the Lakeshore, spread out in four locations, for more than 20 years. With programs in disparate locations and in small, leased available spaces in buildings through the area, serving students and maintaining fiscal responsibility was a challenge on top of restricted growth.

The college purchased the former JCPenney in The Shops at Westshore Mall in the heart of Holland Township to become a consolidated GRCC Lakeshore Campus, committed to serving Lakeshore learners of all ages. One consolidated campus creates synergy and collaboration across programs that are physically co-located, and provides opportunities for operational efficiencies and partnerships with Grand Valley State University’s Meijer campus as well as other area colleges. The 52,000 square-foot campus facility gives GRCC flexibility to grow into the much-larger space and establishes a strong presence, truly embedding the college – and education – in a community.

With a high school building that felt outdated for 21st century learning, Greenville Public Schools had an opportunity to completely transform and upgrade their facility. By commissioning an aging building to improve energy efficiency, air quality, and building performance, the facility now has reduced maintenance, a longer lifespan, and spaces that are more comfortable learning environments for students.

Renovations in the high school include a complete transformation of the Career and Technical Education (CTE) offerings to support new and evolving programming in robotics, construction trades, machining and tools, CAD, and mechatronics. Science labs and classrooms were expanded and spatially reconfigured to support a modern curriculum, and the team created extended, flexible learning opportunities outside of classrooms that encourage collaborative learning. In addition to finish and furniture upgrades throughout the building, new classroom technology and controls and upgrades to the auditorium further enhance the learning environment.

East Lansing Public Schools passed a bond proposal to replace all five of the buildings being used as elementary schools. The district is unique in that there is a large percentage of students that walk or bike to school, with the elementary schools nestled into established neighborhoods. When it came time to redesign the schools, a primary driver was that they fit into the same “neighborhood school” model. 

The school district’s vision for the new Glencairn Elementary was to create environments where 21st century learning could take place. It was also a priority to create spaces where the students enjoyed learning and the staff enjoyed teaching. One way was for our team to carefully consider connections that could be made linking indoors to outdoors visually and physically.  

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.

GMB was retained by Central Michigan University to design a new, synthetic turf, multi-purpose field, to be used by their lacrosse and soccer teams, as well as Central Michigan intramural and club teams.

This multi-use approach was heavily considered in the planning so a maximum number of students would benefit. The lighted, synthetic turf facility includes locker rooms, training room, a fully-operational press box, concessions, scoreboard and seating for approximately 1,000 fans. In addition, a storm water retention system was incorporated into the project. This project is LEED certified.