By Joe Boomgaard | MiBiz
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GRAND RAPIDS — The more than $22 million renovation project of the old Federal Building isn’t the only part of Ferris State University’s Kendall College of Art and Design that’s being remodeled.

When the restored Federal Building opens as a FSU facility in 2012, Kendall College will have finalized its sustainability plan, the cornerstone of which will be the Wege Center for Sustainable Design made possible by a $1 million gift from philanthropist Peter Wege. That plan calls for an integrated, whole systems approach to sustainability in art and design education, a wholly revamped look at how the college approaches preparing future leaders.

“Over the past year or so, the college has been evaluating and revising its processes and practices relative to sustainability, engaging in an evaluation of its current practices and the potential for enhancing those practices,” Kendall President Oliver Evans told MiBiz. “The decision to establish a Center for Sustainable Design in the Federal Building has provided a further opportunity to build upon the work. Within an institution dedicated to art and design, a commitment to sustainability must be a part of the academic programs, but its presence in those programs must reflect the college’s entire commitment to sustainability.”

Gayle DeBruyn, furniture design chair at Kendall, partner at Lake Affect Design Studio and current board chair of the West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum, has helped shepherd the college through the evaluative process of how sustainability fits within the organization.

It’s a process that started first in the classroom and required buy-in from the students before spreading throughout the organization. The students have pushed Kendall to consider becoming a climate-neutral campus, helped establish baseline metrics for a greenhouse gas inventory from 2009 to 2010, and piloted a test run of Recycle Mania, DeBruyn said. Because of their efforts, Evans will also sign the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment.

“Oliver has been encouraging through allowing me to bring this into the classroom at a student level and see if they want to support it or not. It was really quite strategic,” DeBruyn told MiBiz.

With demonstrated student commitment, the college set out to network with experts at other schools in the region — including Aquinas College’s Deb Steketee, Grand Rapids Community College’s Moss Ingram and Grand Valley State University’s Norman Christopher — to gather best practices and to engage with Kendall’s leadership.

“We’ve been graciously welcomed to the collegiate community to look at how we might move forward and at our core competencies — the things we bring to the region that are unique in design and fine art — and how we can strengthen what has been done from a collegiate and government and business level,” DeBruyn said. Armed with that information, the administrative team developed a task force to develop a structure for a sustainability plan and how to implement it, as well as how to engage with external partners and alumni.

FSU President David Eisler said he fully supports embedding sustainability throughout the Kendall experience.

“I can’t see a future for Kendall offering design degrees without sustainability built into it,” he told MiBiz. Moreover, he said he could envision no better embodiment of Kendall’s sustainability than to renovate and reuse the historic Federal Building.

“The reality is that Grand Rapids has torn down most of its historic buildings,” Eisler said. “This is a real example of a magnificent historic building from 1911. When you think of sustainability with a building, the most sustainable is the one you don’t tear down. It’s a natural fit with the Federal Building and the idea of sustainability.”

Kendall, Michigan’s largest design school with more than 1,400 students, will house the Wege Center for Sustainable Design on the fourth floor of the Federal Building, along with the largest Material ConneXion collection in the state. While plans are still in development, the center will likely feature collaborative space for interdisciplinary design education and hands-on learning, he said.

“Design has been in Kendall’s DNA from day one. It’s always been a part of what Kendall does,” Eisler said. “When you think of the transitions in the Michigan economy, so much of the furniture is no longer manufactured here, but the design skills remain. Design is an economic driver for West Michigan. When you think about the future of the design world, you think about sustainable design. That’s where the field is moving. The intent behind the Wege Center for Sustainable Design is to bring sustainability as a core-organizing concept for Kendall’s work in the design field.

“The Wege gift is a wonderful example of a final piece of this project. We needed private, philanthropic support to bring this project home. I can’t say how very grateful we are for the support of the Wege Foundation for this building.”

Susan Lovell, a close friend of Peter Wege and editor of “Economicology II,” Wege’s second book on his vision of sustainability, told MiBiz that like the college, “design is in Peter M. Wege’s DNA.” Prior to enlisting in the Army Air Force, Wege had enrolled in the architecture program at the University of Michigan in 1941. The 91-year-old Steelcase scion has long mixed sustainability and education, she said. Embracing design into the fold made natural sense.

“Education underpins all his other areas of good works. If the planet is to survive, the next generation needs to get it right, according to Wege. Getting educated in sustainable design is imperative for that to happen,” Lovell said.