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Weekly UpdatesDURING A 2006 WALK-THROUGH OF THE FORMER MUTUAL BUILDING IN LANSING, MICH., JAMES CASH AND STEVE ROZNOWSKI LOOKED BEYOND THE STANDING WATER, MISSING CEILING TILES AND PARTIALLY DEMOLISHED WALLS AND RECOGNIZED A POTENTIAL FOR GREATNESS.
"We saw that it had been at one time a beautiful building, and it had a fantastic location," said Cash, president and COO of the Christman Capital Development Company. "The kind of work the building required was the kind of work we were very capable of doing. [We realized a] deal-maker when we went onto the roof and had a panoramic view of the Capitol. We fell in love with it almost instantly."
Cash and Roznowski, CEO of the Christman Company, took the plunge and purchased the building to serve as the new home for the 115-year-old construction and development company's headquarters. Today, the renamed Christman Building is a cutting-edge property that showcases the company's integrated, sustainable and historic preservation construction capabilities. The building has maintained its national historic landmark status while garnering national green-building notoriety with double Platinum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification.
Originally built in 1928 as the headquarters for the Michigan Millers Mutual Insurance Company's headquarters, the building is on the National Register of Historic Places. When Michigan Millers moved out of building in the 1960s, a private party leased office space to multiple office tenants, and the building began its descent into a poorer state of repair until the final tenant moved out in 2004.
PATH TO PLATINUM
Christman's primary goals for the redevelopment project were to increase energy efficiency; establish a superior indoor environment to increase staff productivity and recruit and retain high-caliber talent; and demonstrate the company's talent for sustainable design and historic preservation. Although the company did not go into the project with the intention of becoming double Platinum LEED certified, it became apparent early on that the unique synergy between a sustainable design and historic preservation put them on the path to Platinum.
The Christman Building reused 92 percent of the building's existing walls, roof and floors, and most of the company's former office furnishings. Extensive recycling diverted 77 percent of construction debris from the landfill.
To decrease energy use while maintaining the historic character of the property, the company tuck-pointed and cleaned the original walls; restored the building's original front facade window frames and fitted them with double-glazed glass; and installed a white roof with an additional six inches of insulation to the roof to reduce the urban heat island effect.
Additionally, restoration specialists updated the historic light fixtures to improve energy efficiency without losing the historic charm. Increased day-lighting, T-5 fluorescent lamps and individually controlled multi-task lighting systems at each work station further helped the building achieve a lighting energy savings of 27 percent.
While maintaining the limestone-trimmed, red-brick, Elizabethan architecture and historic interior details were crucial to the project, the Christman Company also wanted the property to be as modern and green as possible.
"We are a current and cutting-edge company, so it was important for us to incorporate modern technology throughout the building, Cash said."
However, turning an older building into a modern, Class-A property requires innovative development, particularly when it comes to heating and cooling systems.
"A lot of times owners of older buildings used for modern purposes will hang a drop ceiling in and run all their ductwork above the ceiling tiles, and that had been done in this building," Cash said.
The design team instead developed a raised access floor that houses the building's mechanical and air distribution systems in the under floor, which uncovered the full height of the windows, and provided daylight into all the spaces.
"It also provides a much healthier ventilation system and a more energy-efficient system because it requires less band-power to push the air," said Gavin Gardi, Christman's sustainable programs manager.
The under floor air distribution system provides 200-300 percent more ventilation than conventional systems.
SYSTEM & STATUS
Currently, the building is projected to exceed minimum energy-efficiency requirements by 34 percent. And, the building's Web-based building management system (BMS) helps the company manage and maintain its energy efficiency. The system tracks and measures electricity and gas usage, along with atmospheric conditions inside and outside the building. It has a user-friendly graphical interface to manage building operations, and it has alarms that go off when a system is not working properly. The BMS also allows management continuous commissioning to help building managers fine-tune the system to achieve the most energy savings possible.
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Along with the environmental and historic impact the building has made, the building itself has enhanced the company's corporate culture.
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"It is a fun, healthy building for people to work in," Gardi said. "The atmosphere is very different than an old, stodgy office building. Part of the design was to develop a building that required people to move around and see the types of exciting things that people were working on."
One area that helped create a collaborative environment is an inner courtyard called Christman Square. The building was originally U-shaped with an outdoor courtyard, but the redevelopment team enclosed that space with a glass ceiling to create an open atrium space that encourages employee interaction.
"In that area we incorporated a communicating staircase so the floors can interface with each other without going over to the elevator, and there are a variety of spaces and landings in and around the staircase where people just naturally run into each other," Cash said. "In the whole building there is quite a bit of natural circulation and interaction with our people."
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Perhaps the most valuable result from the Christman Building is the company's enhanced status in the community and increased visibility for prospective clients.
"It has helped [dramatically] to elevate Christman's reputation as a sustainable construction company," Gardi said. "We have had dozens of tours and hundreds if not thousands of people come through the building."
The result? Plenty of new clients.
"We take every opportunity to bring a new client or a prospective client to our office," Cash said. "It's a very good showplace for prospective customers and other network partners who see the building and say, 'We'd like to have something very similar to that.'"
Diana Mirel is a contributing writer to JPM. Send questions regarding this article to mnaso@irem.org.
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