Feature: The New Center is State of the Art

The new MSU College of Human Medicine headquarters in downtown Grand Rapids is specifically designed for how medicine is taught today, rather than retro-fitting an existing building. IT cost the state's taxpayers exactly nothing.

"We're essentially creating a new medical school without more state dollars," says Dean Marsha Rappley. Private fundraising coupled with support from the city's hospitals made it possible to build the new, $90-million headquarters--the Secchia Center--without any appropriation from the state legislature.

MSU officials had considered several sites in downtown Grand Rapids before settling on Michigan Street. The developers--a partnership between the Christman Co. and RDV Corp.--already were planning to construct an office building there as part of a larger Michigan Street Development complex.

Ellenzweig Architecture of Cambridge, Mass., a firm specializing in designing medical schools, helped integrate the seven-story building atop a five-story parking structure. "We didn't want it to look like it was sitting on a parking deck," says Richard Temple, senior project manager for URS, the architects for the Michigan Street Development. "We made it work," says Ellenzweig President Michael Lauber.

By covering the entire structure, including the parking levels, with a skin cast stone resembling limestone, the architects created the illusion that is one building top to bottom. Wedge-shaped windows extending from the top floor to the ground also unify the entire structure.

The architects also created a sense of community in a multi-story building with a striking four-story atrium, with windows and glass walls throughout.

"What we tried to achieve is a lot of transparency and openness," says Shirine Boulos Anderson, an Ellenzweig architect who guided the project. "It was important for us to draw in as much natural light as possible."

The use of natural light, a heat recovery system and other features are expected to earn the building a LEED certification, meaning it meets strict environmental standards. MSU officials expect to save $47,000 a year in energy costs.

After consulting with students, the architects designed a number of small meeting rooms, exam rooms and informal study areas. There are only two large classrooms and four lecture halls--consistent with the problem-based learning system that MSU uses to teach medical students. Included are exam rooms where students can meet with hired actors portraying patients with various symptoms, and a simulated operating room with a computerized manikin patient.

"We had all these challenges that became opportunities," says Elizabeth Lawrence, assistant dean for capital and strategic planning. "It's functional, and it's beautiful, and it's glorious. It's a real tribute to the expertise of this team."

Works of art on several floors incorporate images of trees and other plants, many of them photographed in the Grand Rapids and East Lansing areas and transferred to glass and ceramic tiles.

"It's the tree as a metaphor for the human body," says artist Amy Baur, who with her husband, Brian Bolden, a former associate professor of art at MSU, created the pieces. Glass doors to a lounge area carry that same theme, embossed with images of trees based on drawings by Harry Ellenzweig, the architectural firm's founder.

Already the building, with its curved roof line, has become a landmark on the Michigan Street Hill.

"The building is a symbol, a symbol that this unusual approach, this partnership, is significant" says MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon. "For me, it's just a place to do work, and the work is pretty important.