When the Battle Creek Area Math and Science Center in Battle Creek, Mich., outgrew its aging facility, the Kellogg Co. donated its former Cereal City USA Museum to the school. TowerPinkster Architects, Grand Rapids, Mich., turned the former cereal museum into a new, cutting-edge math and science institution.
Completed in 2013, the $11 million Battle Creek Area Math and Science Center serves a dual purpose of a high school science, technology, engineering and math education (STEM) program for talented students from 16 neighboring school districts, and a distribution center that designs, manufactures and distributes science curriculum materials. The school and distribution center have a symbiotic relationship that has helped the school remain open over the years.
As senior design architect Matt Slagle, AIA, LEED AP, explains it, the kits are comprised of science curriculum and the pre-measured components of experiments for that curriculum. “The center uses the STEM faculty to create the curriculum and the profit from selling those K-12 kits to schools all over Michigan goes back to the center, and allows it to remain in operation,” he says. “Thus, it was imperative to keep the distribution center co-located with the learning center.”
The architects were charged with transforming the agrarian aesthetic of a museum dedicated to the invention of corn flakes into a 64,000-square-foot learning facility. The project required removing six existing barn roof forms and creating a cantilevered second and third floor additions over the entry plaza. A new “V” column support was added to the entry to support the new floors and act as a source of inspiration for students.
According to Slagle, the original building’s steel frame gave designers the flexibility to add on where it made the best learning spaces. This also allowed for the addition of the distribution center, which is a combination of pre-fabricated metal building from Ceco Building Systems, Columbus, Miss., and conventional architecture. “Furthermore, the original building was over-designed such that we were able to add second and third floors supported off of existing columns,” he explains. “Since the walls were not structural, we were able to replace them with curved and angled interior walls to mimic organic biology.”
A cantilevered glass-and-aluminum curtainwall system envelops the exterior of the second floor, facilitating a greenhouse at the corner and floating over the entry to showcase the center’s commitment to research-based learning. The new third floor is wrapped in approximately 4,000 square feet of two-tone metal wall panels punched with a pattern inspired by mathematical arrays based on the Golden Ratio. The aluminum curtainwall, storefront and entries by Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope, Santa Monica, Calif.; metal wall panels by Metl-Span, Lewisville, Texas; and high-performance coated glass products by Guardian Industries Corp., Auburn Hills, Mich., enhance the unique facade design.
The front-and-center glass curtainwall uses Guardian’s SunGuard SNR 43 on CrystalGray with its 31 percent visible light transmission and low 0.20 solar heat gain coefficient, fabricated by independent Guardian Select Fabricator Thompson I.G., Fenton, Mich. Meanwhile, the perimeter of the building utilizes SunGuard SuperNeutral 68 with a 68 percent visible light transmittance (VLT) and a 0.38 solar heat gain coefficient, fabricated by independent Guardian Select Fabricator Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope.
Inside, the design concept draws on biological science with walls that act as an expression of organic form set in motion by a three-story pendulum hung from a severed cone of structural steel swings inside the central stair. “While both of the stairs’ landings are cantilevered into space, the higher one is a longer cantilever and particular source of inspiration,” Slagle says. “The structural engineer designed a steel cable support to take the bounce out of the landing, which invites students to touch and wonder about the physics of steel.”
Situated on 600 feet of riverfront space and a public park, the building is a visual anchor to the north edge of historic Battle Creek. Exterior spaces provide safe access to the river for biology students to study, sample and analyze the ecosystem. Additionally, food science engineers from nearby Kellogg can cross a bridge directly to the center to make presentations, meet with students and tour them through the company’s real-world lab environments.
“This is one of the favorite projects of my career primarily because my team and the client team strived to achieve their vision of ‘Innovation Through Inspiration,'” Slagle adds. “The result is a place that truly inspires young minds to reach their full potential, and I am proud to have been part of that.”
Battle Creek Area Math and Science Center, Battle Creek, Mich.
Award: Merit Award Winner in the Category of Projects Less than $15 Million in the 2014 Innovative Design in
Engineering and Architecture with Structural Steel awards program (IDEAS2)
Owner: Battle Creek Public Schools, Battle Creek
Architect:
TowerPinkster, Grand Rapids, Mich.
General contractor/erector: Schweitzer Inc., Battle Creek
Glass fabricator: Thompson I.G., Fenton, Mich.,
Structural engineer: Teton Designs, Grand Rapids
Steel fabricator/detailer: Steel Supply & Engineering, Grand Rapids
Aluminum framing systems: Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope, Santa Monica, Calif., www.oldcastlebe.com
Curtainwall glass: Guardian Industries Corp., Auburn Hills, Mich.,
www.guardian.com
Metal building system: Ceco Building Systems, Columbus, Miss., www.cecobuildings.com
Metal wall panels: Metl-Span, Lewisville, Texas, www.metl-span.com