MONTCALM COMMUNITY COLLEGE
BEATRICE E. DOSER VOCATIONAL / TECHNICAL FACILITY
Sidney, Michigan
Square Feet: 38,500
Faced with a very unimaginative campus plan and
architecture, the most important design goals were
to respond to the community context, the campus
context, and the natural context.
To respond to these goals the building architecture
is a coming together of three geometries: 1) The
linear light fixtures are laid out east and west
to follow the community surveyed grid of roads
and farms; 2) the building planning grid follows
the grid of the existing campus (which for some
unknown reason was offset by 60 degrees); 3) the
entirely free flowing all glass transparent wall
is adjacent to the natural woods. The main corridor
flows freely through the building center as the
orthogonal building grid gradually breaks down
into a natural curve.
In addition the new facility forms and reinforces
exterior spaces, previously lacking, which are
so essential to creating a campus feeling. Energy
issues were paramount with the building orientations
allowing natural light from the east, shaded by
fins, and creating heat storing thermal mass to
the south and west.
