Please provide a brief overview of the project.
The new national headquarters of Accident Fund Holdings, Inc. (Accident Fund), a major provider of workers compensation insurance, is a state-of-the-art, Class A office complex comprised of 227,000 s.f. of rehabilitated historic space,105,000 s.f. of new space and a new 1,000-car parking deck located in downtown Lansing, Michigan, USA. The $182,000,000 project encompassed several elements including the power station and addition, land/site development and construction of a parking structure. Also included in the project was the construction of a new chiller building in an alternate downtown location, to house a relocated Lansing Board of Water and Light (LBWL) chiller plant formerly housed in the structure. The project was completed in April 2011 and has been certified LEED Gold. It has already garnered several awards, including the IDEAS2 award from the American Institute of Steel (AISC), the Construction Association of Michigan (CAM) 2011 Green Project of the Year, a 2011 Excellence in Economic Development Awards from the International Economic Development Council, Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation from the State of Michigan, and the 2012 Beyond Green High Performance Building Award from the Sustainable
Buildings Industry Council. It’s also currently a finalist in the 2012 CoreNET Global Innovator’s Award proceedings. Only four years ago, the two city blocks comprising the project site told a much different story, with the main structure serving as little more than a blighted abandoned building, a shell of the source of power and civic pride the plant once was. Constructed in 1939, the Ottawa Street Power Station – a National Register Building – was decommissioned in 1992 and retrofitted with a chilled water plant and high-pressure steam distribution facility in 2001 to provide cooling and steam for downtown businesses and state offices, but had otherwise stood in obsolescence. It is considered to be a prime example of classic Art Deco architecture, with many distinctive structural features incorporated by Bowd-Munson, renowned architects of the period. These features include windows shaped to represent a stylized plume of fire and exterior building colors symbolizing the combustion of coal with black granite at the base giving way to purple grey in the lower masonry, continuing to red and yellow bricks that lighten in hue as the “flame” rises. A true area landmark and icon of the city skyline, it had become a sad example of urban decay in the heart of the state’s capital.
The design team, comprised of HOK (St. Louis, MO), lead architect; Quinn Evans (Ann Arbor, MI), historic preservation architects; Carl Walker, Inc. (Kalamazoo, MI), parking structure designers; Tower Pinkster (Kalamazoo, MI), site planners; and HOK’s Advanced Strategies, workspace programming and design, was tasked with creating a seven-acre national headquarters riverfront campus to include rehabilitation of the iconic Ottawa Street Power Station and design of a complementary addition that together would meet Accident Fund’s current and future facility needs. The campus was also to accommodate a parking deck and coordinate with the linear riverfront public park development, with both owner and tenant committed to sustainability of the structures. The goals of the design were to honor and unify the past and present, as well as redefine the site’s connection to the downtown area and the Grand River. A major challenge was to balance the historic preservation needs of an older industrial building with the expectations for a high-end corporate office image. Through careful planning and informed decision-making on how best to focus investment in the facility, the entire project was designed and then delivered on budget.
What makes this project unique?
The historic rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of the Ottawa Street Power Station is believed to be one of the largest power plant reclamations in history. By helping retain a major employer, the project has already played a synergistic role in stimulating revitalization of downtown Lansing. Originally designed to conceal electricity generation operations behind a stately office building façade, the building now actually houses offices. Repurposing of the power plant captured its embodied energy and capitalized on many opportunities, including the importance of this iconic structure to the city, the downtown riverfront location, the extensive glazing offering natural light and excellent views, the craftsmanship of the original construction, and the outstanding Art Deco design. The transformation posed many challenges, including the insertion of floors while maintaining structural stability, restoration of the masonry envelope, environmental remediation, separation of the screen house from the river, and creation of energy efficiencies, among others. All were achieved within federal and state historic preservation standards.
Additionally, the most vivid outcome of the project is the physical transformation it has caused. A decaying power plant has been reborn as a highly functional corporate headquarters, with respect for its historic character and a focus on sustainability. A section of the city, long neglected, is now vibrant and bustling with daily activity. In addition, the success of the partnership has led to reinvigorated efforts on several other previously stagnant development initiatives – even in the midst of this challenging economic climate. Over $180 million has been invested, primarily in the local economy, and over 782,920 person-hours were devoted to building the project by union tradesmen and tradeswomen who otherwise may very well have remained unemployed.
What were the primary funding sources?
Several initiatives aligned to form the rehabilitation project. Christman was working with Accident Fund to help the insurance firm explore an array of real estate and facilities options in a Master Plan Study to meet its growing need for office space – one that projected the company potentially running out of square footage in the not-so-distant future. Simultaneously, Accident Fund, together with its parent company, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (Blue Cross), was seeking opportunities to not only remain an anchor employer in downtown Lansing but also to reinforce its commitment to help reignite regional economic development through investment in the city’s urban core. In order to make the project financially feasible, Christman led the development of a public-private partnership consisting of Accident Fund, Blue Cross, The Christman Company, the City of Lansing, the State of Michigan, LBWL (the original building owner), and others. This partnership resulted in a significant package of public financing mechanisms and other economic support, including a state job creation grant, Brownfield tax increment financing (TIF) and tax credits, state and federal historic tax credits, a renaissance zone, and others.
The total redevelopment cost for the entire project was $182,000,000.
What contaminants were present on the site?
The site is located on the riverfront and was previously the location of multiple industrial businesses in downtown Lansing. Before the land was used for such industrial purposes as the former coal-fired power plant, manufacturing operations, foundry, and automobile fueling and repair shops; thousands of cubic yards of “urban fill” had been placed on the site to reclaim the riverfront and raise the grade for urban use. The fill material, often containing debris such as bricks, concrete, wood, etc. was documented at depths ranging from 5- to 20-feet below ground surface.
The prior site operations and deposition of fill resulted in soil and groundwater contamination across the site. The most notable contaminants included various metals, predominately arsenic and lead, as well as petroleum-related compounds including polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PNAs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) associated with fuel oil storage, coal storage, and releases from automobile fueling stations.
Additionally, previous industrial operations on adjacent properties, notably a former manufactured gas plant, also resulted in contamination to the site. Dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) was migrating onto the site via shallow clay in the area. The extent of DNAPL impact was characterized and a deed restriction was placed on a portion of the site to prevent the installation of any structures on the affected site area, which could pose a volatilization issue.
Contamination was also present within the foundation of the Ottawa Street Power Station. The foundation consists of a network of concrete “cells” created by concrete grade beams that sit upon a massive concrete slab. During demolition and excavation work within these cells, debris and contaminated sediment and water were encountered. Contaminants within this material included VOCs, PNAs, and metals, particularly lead.
In addition to the contamination noted above, lead-based paint was present throughout the structure, and was generally in very poor condition. The deteriorating lead-based paint coated nearly all structural steel within the plant, creating a significant abatement effort prior to reuse of the structure. Although a large-scale asbestos removal program was implemented by the prior owner, additional asbestos-containing materials were also encountered, which required abatement during redevelopment activities.
The primary remediation and abatement activities that had to be undertaken to successfully redevelop the site included: “hot-spot” soil remediation, excavation and disposal of contaminated soil, dewatering and management of groundwater, coal bunker sediment management, and lead-based paint and asbestos abatement.
Based on the relatively small site footprint of the power station relative to the redevelopment, contaminated soils could not be relocated on the site. Therefore, all soil excavated for new building construction, infrastructure, and the river-front linear park needed to be landfilled. Approximately 10,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil were transported off-site for disposal at a Type II municipal landfill. Disposal costs were reduced by filling two large coal bunkers, which were approximately 20 feet deep and 1,800 cubic yards in volume, with site soils that were minimally impacted. Soil remediation costs were approximately $370,000. Filling the large coal bunkers saved approximately $80,000 when factoring in the cost to transport and dispose the contaminated soil, as well as the cost to import fill material from another site. Some select “hot-spot” removal was also undertaken in advance of mass soil removal, to eliminate soils with extremely high levels of PNAs that exceeded the State’s generic soil volatilization to ambient air criteria.
Contaminated sediment and water was encountered within the mat foundation of the Ottawa Street Power Station. Large volumes of water were present and infiltrating into the foundation system. The water had elevated levels of metals, primarily lead and mercury, which were too high for the municipal wastewater treatment plant to accept. Through a series of filter tests, it was determined that a dual-chamber bag filter system could be used to remove contaminated sediment such that the water was suitable for discharge to the municipal sanitary sewer system. Approximately 268,400 gallons were discharged from the site to the sanitary sewer between February 19, 2009 and August 3, 2009. Dewatering costs were approximately $40,000. Costs to containerize and transport that volume of water to an offsite location would likely have been in excess of $250,000.
Remaining contamination at the site was handled through deed restrictions limiting construction of buildings above certain impacted areas, as well as “capping” shallow contaminated soils within green space areas with clean material such as topsoil and mulch. Costs to implement activity use limitations and engineering controls were approximately $25,000.
The Ottawa Street Power Station was fully decommissioned prior to acquisition for redevelopment. As a result, much of the interior contamination was removed prior to transfer. However, the steel infrastructure – both the main structure of the building and the supplemental system that supported the equipment and piping of the plant – was coated with multiple layers of lead-containing paint. Almost all of this steel would be affected by the construction process – whether serving as part of the new steel frame for the office building, acting as temporary support during construction, or simply being removed. In order to minimize cost, abatement of lead-containing paint was strategically performed only as necessary for the removal or reuse of steel structural components.
The balance of the remaining steel was cleared of loose paint and the residual coating was encapsulated in the new fireproofing system. In addition, asbestos roofing material was removed. The cost for this abatement was approximately $704,200.
In addition, the existing window system of the building was coated with lead-containing paint and was glazed with an asbestos containing glazing compound. Since this system was replaced with high-efficiency aluminum windows with special, high-efficiency clear glass, abatement was again strategically minimized to that work required for the safe removal and disposal of the original windows. In addition, a portion of the original windows that fell within the new atrium connecting the renovated space with the addition were fully abated, refinished and re-glazed. Costs for the abatement work related to the windows were approximately $325,000.
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Describe the balance of social, economic and environmental impact for you project that would deem the project “sustainable”.
The project’s team of experts set out to create a workspace that was on the cutting edge of green; conducive to the collaborative, technology-friendly and flexible work styles of its people; and a contribution to the revitalization of downtown Lansing. The obsolete power station, located on the banks of the Grand River in the heart of Lansing, provided the ideal setting for the project, which included the rehabilitation of the power plant, office addition and parking structure.
Using the latest in sustainable design and construction technology, as construction managers, historic preservationists, developers, and experts in sustainability, the team managed to incorporate a Class A office interior into a significant historical structure both aesthetically and functionally, while meeting the cost constraints of a development project and the high standards of a historical preservation and sustainable project.
What aspects of energy efficiency were incorporated into the redevelopment of the project? For instance, prior to the project going on line, was there any implementation of renewal energy resources (i.e. solar, wind or geothermal energy) to drive the cleanup or construction process?
Efficient energy-using equipment including an underfloor air distribution system and right-sized equipment plus an integrated design process was used on this project. Based on energy models, the building was projected to operate at an EUI of 139.2kBtu/square foot/year and energy savings of 22% compared to the ASHRE 90.1-2004 baseline model. Actual energy use after one year of operation has resulted in an EUI (Energy Utilization Index) of 109.9 kBtu/square foot/year. Energy costs were projected to be 16.8% less than the baseline model. Renewable energy certificates were purchased to offset 35% of the projected electrical usage. Energy modeling and life cycle costing were used to determine the most efficient combination of envelope and HVAC
systems to restore the power plant.
Construction Waste Management – With a goal of diverting 75% of waste from landfills, the Accident Fund project reclaimed or recycled an impressive 96.5% of all construction waste. A breakdown follows:
- Trash – 1,130 Tons
- Concrete – 29,051 Tons
- Metal – 1,677 Tons
- Wood/Drywall – 162 Tons
- Cardboard – 14 Tons
What water conservation measures were implemented in the project (ie.. impacting potable water, gray water, stormwater, etc.)?
A 41% reduction in potable water and sewage usage was achieved by careful selection of water efficient plumbing fixtures, faucets and flush valves. Landscaping was designed using native plants that require reduced irrigation from potable water sources resulting in a potable water use reduction of 50%. Alternative surfaces and nonstructural techniques were used to reduce stormwater imperviousness and promote infiltration onsite to manage stormwater runoff.
Besides water recycling, were there any other examples of materials recycling that were performed on site— including perhaps to eliminate waste and even generate energy or power?
Extensive energy modeling and life cycle costing were conducted to determine the most efficient way to restore the power plant.
Construction waste management was significant, achieving 96.5% waste diversion, by weight, including 1,677 tons of metal, 29,051 tons of concrete, 162 tons of wood/drywall, and 14 tons of cardboard diverted from landfill. About 75% of the building’s existing brick was cleaned and reused, as well as 95% of existing masonry on the building.
How does this redevelopment support a healthy indoor air quality for any inhabitants; specifically, what techniques were used to remediate the site and protect indoor air quality?
The design included replacement of the huge windows in the power station with energy efficient glazing and large window walls in the new addition resulting in a stimulating daylit work environment with views from 90+% of workstations. A rigorous construction IAQ management Plan was implemented throughout the project. Low-emitting materials, including adhesives and sealants, paints and coatings, carpet systems and composite wood products were selected to reduce harmful VOC emissions during and after construction. Indoor chemical and pollutant source control is accomplished by ensuring that all areas that contain chemicals have negative air pressure and extensive walk-off mats prevent dirt from entering the building. Upon completion, a comprehensive green cleaning program was implemented to eliminate the use of harmful chemicals.
What materials were used in the redevelopment to classify this project as "sustainable"?
Material use for the building was substantially reduced by reusing 75% of existing structural walls, floor and roof in the historic power station. An impressive 96.5% of all construction waste was diverted from landfill. Materials were carefully selected to have both recycled content and to have been manufactured and extracted within a 500-mile radius of the project. These materials included steel, concrete, carpet, drywall, ceiling tiles and many other finish materials. By cost, a total of 22% of materials contained recycled content and 32% originated within the region of the project.
How does the project support a high quality of life for the adjacent community and how were they included in the planning of this project?
Adjacent to the project site, a 25’ strip of land on the river’s edge was dedicated to the riverfront park system. Originally undeveloped, it presented an opportunity to integrate the completion of that section of the park with the riverfront side of the Accident Fund campus. The City of Lansing worked with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to extend the availability of remaining Clean Michigan Initiative funds. The $3.2 million grant funded improvements on both sides of Grand
River from Michigan Avenue to the Shiawassee Bridge. Because the city’s riverfront project on the west bank of the Grand River was immediately adjacent to the campus, the team closely collaborated with engineers and designers to create congruent solutions for design and security.
The project has served as a catalyst to generate additional retail, commercial and residential projects. This includes more downtown living options, retail and entertainment opportunities that are transforming downtown Lansing, and specifically the riverfront. The successful completion of this project has led to several other large-scale redevelopment projects in the immediate area including the Marketplace mixed-use development and the renovation of the historic Knapp building in downtown Lansing.
What energy savings are anticipated as a result of the sustainable methods used?
Actual energy use after one year of operation has resulted in an EUI (Energy Utilization Index) of 109.9 kBtu/square foot/year. Energy costs were projected to be 16.8% less than the baseline model. Renewable energy certificates were purchased to offset 35% of the projected electrical usage.
What water savings are anticipated as a result of the sustainable methods used?
Indoor water use projections based on the LEED Water Use Reduction calculator were projected to be 1,403,887 gallons/year resulting in a 41.1% projected savings from the artificial baseline case. Actual indoor water usage based on actual water bills show a water use of 2,557,412 gallons for the first year of operation. The irrigation system was designed to use 50% less water than the baseline case. Actual irrigation water use after the first year of operation, based on water bills, was 900,592 gallons. No water reuse measures were included in the project.
What level of sustainable/green remediation (inSitu) techniques were used during the cleanup phase?
The power plant’s seven acre riverfront campus offered the opportunity for remediation of environmental issues related to its former industrial use.
During the cleanup phase, stormwater management techniques were implemented onsite to reduce runoff and to clean runoff that flowed into the Grand River. The design process included plans to prevent construction-related pollution of the river and to manage stormwater runoff after occupancy.
The primary remediation and abatement activities that had to be undertaken to successfully redevelop the site included: “hot-spot” soil remediation, excavation and disposal of contaminated soil, dewatering and management of groundwater, coal bunker sediment management, and lead-based paint and asbestos abatement.
Based on the relatively small site footprint of the power station relative to the redevelopment, contaminated soils could not be relocated on the site. Therefore, all soil excavated for new building construction, infrastructure, and the river-front linear park needed to be landfilled. Approximately 10,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil were transported off-site for disposal at a Type II municipal landfill. Disposal costs were reduced by filling two large coal bunkers, which were approximately 20 feet deep and 1,800 cubic yards in volume, with site soils that were minimally impacted. Soil remediation costs were approximately $370,000. Filling the large coal bunkers saved approximately $80,000 when factoring in the cost to transport and dispose the contaminated soil, as well as the cost to import fill material from another site. Some select “hot-spot” removal was also undertaken in advance of mass soil removal, to eliminate soils with extremely high levels of PNAs that exceeded the State’s generic soil volatilization to ambient air criteria.
Contaminated sediment and water was encountered within the mat foundation of the Ottawa Street Power Station. Large volumes of water were present and infiltrating into the foundation system. The water had elevated levels of metals, primarily lead and mercury, which were too high for the municipal wastewater treatment plant to accept. Through a series of filter tests, it was determined that a dual-chamber bag filter system could be used to remove contaminated sediment such that the water was suitable for discharge to the municipal sanitary sewer system. Approximately 268,400 gallons were discharged from the site to the sanitary sewer between February 19, 2009 and August 3, 2009. Remaining contamination at the site was handled through deed restrictions limiting construction of buildings above certain impacted areas, as well as “capping” shallow contaminated soils within green space areas with clean material such as topsoil and mulch.
