A large, orange sliding door from the power plant and the gantry crane’s cab from which the operator lifted parts for boiler and turbine repair still exist inside Accident Fund’s lobby.
An insulated cool roof and light- colored hardscaping minimize the building and surrounding area’s heat-island effect.
PHOTO: IMAGE MICHIGAN AND THE CHRISTMAN CO.
commitment to our community, mid-Mich- igan and the state of Michigan,” Reynolds says. “From the get-go we all agreed to use as many local mid-Michigan- and Michigan- based companies on the project as possible.” In fact, of the 118 contracts and suppliers
that participated in the project, 106 were Michigan-based firms and 54 of those were Lansing-based. The project provided 1 million worker hours overall in an economy where construction jobs, especially, were difficult to find. The project’s local focus and its sheer complexities have made it one of the most unique retrofit projects in U.S. history.
Restoring an Icon Built in two phases because of materi-
als 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 build- ings 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
28 RETROFIT // November-December 2012
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 obso- lete. It was decommissioned in 1992, but the Lansing Board of Water and Light attached a chilled-water plant to it for cooling down- town 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, Christ-
man 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 qual- ifying for a state job creation grant, brown- field tax increment financing, state and fed- eral historic tax credits, renaissance zoning (a specific area designated for redevelopment) and other development incentives.