Occupational Education Building Renovation | Ann Arbor, MI
The Washtenaw Community College (WCC) Occupational Education Building (OEB) was built in 1980 and is a two story building with an area of 111,903 gross square feet and 109,095 net square feet, located on the campus of Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The building houses: classrooms, offices, student lounge space and laboratories for technical training.
The design team’s challenge for the WCC OEB renovation was to utilize the latest and most efficient and complementary architectural, mechanical and electrical technologies to create a high performing building that would also meet the client’s budget. This required a highly collaborative design approach from the mechanical, electrical and architectural design team.
Some of the key technologies incorporated in the OEB design were a green vegetation roof; an evacuated tube solar hot water heating system; photovoltaic electrical solar panels; a rain water collection system; daylighting controls; replacement of the buildings old T-12 fluorescent lighting fixtures with more efficient T-8 fluorescent lighting fixtures; the replacement of the buildings old incandescent lighting with LED lighting; water saving plumbing fixtures; and three interactive kiosks displaying building operation & green technologies. In addition, the building’s primary 31-year old HVAC system was replaced with the state-of-the-art ground source geo-exchange heating and cooling system, which utilized six pipe water-to-water central heat pumps.
The project won first place Chapter and Regional ASHRAE Technology Awards.
