Feyen Zylstra completed all of the electrical work on Michigan State University’s Grand Rapids Research Center, part of MSU’s College of Human Medicine. This was a $88.1 million, seven story, 162,000 square foot project that included wet bench laboratories, support rooms, and core laboratories with bioinformatics, flow cytometer, long-term storage, both analytical and advanced microscopy, as well as research write-up areas, dry computational laboratories, administrative areas, and shared spaces.

The building also features a vivarium, a research laboratory where live animals are kept in a controlled environment. The vivarium is comprised of holding pens and procedure rooms, an imaging suite, and support spaces for cage washing, bedding, and feed storage. The center assists MSU College of Human Medicine scientists and researchers from partnering institutions study a host of medical issues.

In an effort to obtain LEED Gold status for the project, FZ’s scope of work called for the exclusive use of LED fixtures, cut-off exterior lighting fixtures, electric vehicle charging stations, plus a complex programmable lighting control system with daylight harvesting. The team overcame challenges when installing multiple types of high-end LED linear fixtures; integrating a highly complex lighting control package to accommodate the rodents in the vivarium;
and also incorporating a colored conduit installation system — all while working on an accelerated milestone schedule.

FZ prefabricated the vertical conduit racks locally for floors 1—6, as well as the horizontal conduit racks for every floor. This resulted in significant time and cost savings
for the customer. FZ worked directly with the construction manager, Clark-Rockford Joint Venture, and the engineering firm Smith Group JJR to provide Design Assist services for the project.