Name and Address of Submitting Firm:
Progressive AE
Name of Owner / Developer:
Michigan Electric Transmission Company
Name of General Contractor / Construction Manager:
The Christman Company
Design Challenges:
- Provide a reliable mission critical facility fully integrated with a corporate workplace in an environment that supports extended work shifts and situational emergency activities.
- Incorporate security, reliability, and weather into the design approach and building location on the site.
- Create a structure that could withstand an F4 tornado and any type of security breach.
- Support a client team and consultants located in two countries and five states within the U.S. to meet an aggressive schedule without room for extension.
Major program elements:
Mission control theater, mission control learning lab, lobby, workplace, break area, incident room, engineering systems
Design Principles:
Integration | Reliability | Design integrity
Design Solutions:
Exterior Design:
Our design strategy was to centralize the mission control theater and wrap it with technology, engineering systems, and workplace. This outer program represented the activity required to allow the theater to perform while providing a protective barrier. We furthered the parti distinction with the exterior envelope development:
- The skin for the workplace is represented by glazing and silver smooth metal panel establishing an active, light transparent façade.
- The technology and engineering systems is clad in silver corrugated metal panel creating a skin with texture to break down the opaque nature of a solid wall.
- The mission control theater is clad with dark grey box ribbed metal panel, giving it a heavy substantial presence in the heart of the facility.
- The architectural skin becomes more transparent as it grows towards the entrance, creating a feeling of energy and movement.
Security Design:
The building was sited back from the entrance access road and on-site parking to protect the structure from potential charging vehicle exposure.
- The landscape strategy provided a passive shield by using plants, boulders, land form, and fencing.
- We integrated the need for security with the assets of the natural surrounding, creating a reliable and genuine environment.
- Security is further integrated into the transparent nature of the workplace architecture. By positioning the workplace program at the entrance side of the site, we established direct sight lines to the entry and parking area.
- We strategically located the heart of the security to support the lobby function and establish site panoramic viewing corridors.
- The curtain wall is extended past the building envelope to protect the entry from the westerly winds. The transparency of this scrim supports the clear visual connection to entry and lobby.
Interior Design:
- The workplace is light-filled and connected to the two-story lobby. The space is flexible and linked by a communicating stair that has a transparent access to nature.
- The mission control theater is a two-story volume, engineered to have adjusting light levels and color to represent the changing times of day lighting. The theater is directly connected to the kitchen and break area to support the long work shifts.
- The incident room overlooks the mission control theater from the second level. Set up like a board room, this environment has direct viewing to the monitoring system. The face of this room is painted red to reflect the urgency of the functions house in this environment.
