The 75-year-old W.S. Dewing Building has been transformed into KVCC's Center for New Media.

Worn-Out to Wired: Turning a 1920s Building into a State-of-the-Art Media Center

Location: Kalamazoo, Michigan

A couple years ago, the W.S. Dewing Building would have seemed an unlikely choice to house high-tech studies. The 1920s building in downtown Kalamazoo had deteriorated over the years, and the interior was dark and unappealing.

Today, the facility has been transformed into Kalamazoo Valley Community College's (KVCC) Center for New Media, a vibrant, light-filled space equipped with the latest technology and designed to foster students' creativity. CSM Group served as construction manager for the $5.8 million renovation and addition project.

Preserving-and improving upon-history.

The owner, Greenleaf Holdings, wanted to preserve the W.S. Dewing Building's historical details while also making the space more inviting and attractive. Particularly high on the priority list was finding a way to bring natural light into the lower level of the three-level facility.

Architectural firm Eckert Wordell designed a plan calling for new openings that conformed to the style of the existing windows. A 9,000-square-foot addition would match the existing limestone facade, seamlessly integrating with the original building and bringing the total space to 47,000 square feet. Tim Ankney, Project Director for CSM Group, led the effort to turn this plan into a reality. "The building was in bad condition-it had had multiple tenants and the space had been chopped up," he says. "We had to do selective demolition of the building and prop up sections as we created new openings and put in new supports."

Just-in-time construction.

With the building's downtown location, precise planning was essential for the construction process to run smoothly. Pedestrian traffic around the building made safety measures particularly important. Zero-lot lines on much of the property meant space to accommodate construction frequently ended at the building's walls.

"There wasn't space at the job site to store materials in advance. We made sure all contractors knew upfront, prior to bidding, that deliveries of materials would need to be just-in-time," says Ankney.

A facility fit for the 21st century.

To re-purpose the building-originally constructed in 1929-for the technology- intensive new media program, data capacity was key. The facility was connected by fiber optics to the rest of KVCC's downtown campus, and the classrooms were designed and constructed with a great deal of flexibility, allowing KVCC to reconfigure the setup as needs change.

A state-of-the-art daylight harvesting system was installed to make the most of the facility's expanses of glass. The system senses sunlight and lowers the lights accordingly, reducing energy costs.

One new feature is actually a throwback to the building's original plans. "The project architect found that the original drawings had called for a copper awning around the building, but one had never been installed. It was decided to add the awning to the renovated building," says Ankney.

On-time opening.

With thorough planning and careful scheduling, CSM Group was able to keep the timeline for the complex construction project on track. The Center for New Media was completed in July 2004 after about 16 months of construction, allowing the facility to open in time for fall classes.

The Center for New Media features 11 classrooms and computer labs, offices and conference rooms, and two multimedia galleries. Nearly 400 students a semester now take classes there in subjects like animation, photography, e-commerce, programming, and multimedia design and development.

A window to the community.

Not only does KVCC now have a space ideally designed for its media arts program, the Center for New Media has brought new visibility to the college's program in the community.

Downtown pedestrians get a firsthand look at students' work with a gallery that faces the Kalamazoo Mall. The Arcus Gallery features six high-definition plasma screens that showcase student artwork ranging from digital art to motion graphics to short films. The screens run continuously so students' artwork is always on display to the public.

"This project has had a big impact on downtown, and we received a lot of positive feedback from the community as we were doing the renovation," says Ankney. "It's helped generate excitement and bring more people downtown.

"Renovating a historical building posed additional challenges that wouldn't have been there if we'd been starting from scratch, but we shared the vision of the owner and the architect. The building had so many great features that you just don't find in buildings of today, and we knew we could bring it back to life."