Restoring an Icon
Built in two phases because of materials shortages during World War II, the 32,000-square-foot Ottawa Street Power Station was designed in the Art Deco style by Edwin A. Bowd of Lansing-based Bowd-Munson, which also designed many buildings on Michigan State University’s campus. The power plant features walls of intricately placed multi-color brick that replicate coal’s combustion; dark purples are visible around the base of the building, lightening to reds in the middle and yellows at the top. Based on its design and engineering feats of the time, the Ottawa Street Power Station was celebrated in trade publications and quickly became a Lansing landmark.
The power plant provided electricity and steam to downtown Lansing until the late 1980s when its equipment became obsolete. It was decommissioned in 1992, but the Lansing Board of Water and Light attached a chilled-water plant to it for cooling downtown Lansing’s buildings. After purchasing the building from the Board of Water and Light, Christman built a new chilled-water plant for the utility in a new location.
To fund the $182 million retrofit, Christman spent more than one year developing a public-private partnership with Accident Fund, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the city of Lansing, Board of Water and Light, and state of Michigan. The partnership resulted in a project made financially feasible by qualifying for a state job creation grant, brownfield tax increment financing, state and federal historic tax credits, renaissance zoning (a specific area designated for redevelopment) and other development incentives.
In addition, Christman assembled a team to work with Accident Fund for about a year to show the insurer exactly what the building could become, how it could serve Accident Funds’ needs and how the waterfront area could be revitalized by making the former power plant a keystone for the area. “The building is gorgeous and has a lot of historic significance,” Gardi notes. “There was never a point where Accident Fund said ‘let’s just tear it down,’ but there was a lot of visioning involved.”
Reynolds adds: “When I first walked into the Ottawa Street Power Station before we’d even made the decision we were going to do this, I really struggled with seeing the ultimate vision and what it could be. All those public-private entities had to work with the singular goal of seeing this through. No one ever underestimated the complexity of the project and everyone committed their best and brightest to really overcome any obstacles and manage the complexity.”
Christman’s team utilized energy modeling early on to assist in the design process. “The building was in essence designed to lose heat because there were huge boilers in it,” Gardi explains. “We used life-cycle costing and energy modeling to determine what type of glazing to replace the existing windows with, what type of HVAC system to install, and how much of the interior walls we could fur out and insulate because we wanted to keep a good portion visible.”