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This is one of those 'wow' areas. Where as a contractor and architect and engineer when
you're done with a project of this magnitude and you walk into a facility like this, especially
in an area like this, in a program space like this, you're like 'wow this is really cool'.
We actually have a physical connection to the Kirkhof Center, the Kirkhof Center is
actually the student hub, it's the student center of campus, so by bridging the two buildings
together, we've created a new student center that incorporates the library. There's a direct
physical connection to the student center, the Kirkhof Center.
Basically what's down here is all of our process, it's truly the heart of the building, all
of our air handling units, all of our pumps, our snowmelt and in-floor heat system, our
fire pump, our dry system for fire protection, for our AS/AR and our electrical rooms, our
main electrical, our emergency generator and switches, our main IT, everything is down
here. It's where everything is housed.
This is the first floor, the first floor is actually our entrance from the south, we'll
get to walk in that and see that. In that main concourse, in that main run, the circulation
desk will be there, you'll see some of that framing starting, we have a raised floor that's
actually raised up, it's tiled, and raised 18 inches, the reason why is because it's
tile, there's no access under the floor, we do have radiant heat there.
The nice thing about this building is that as you go up through the floors, in a typical
mid-rise or high-rise you can't get outside, you're kind of confined to the building. Here,
there are open air areas, and this is our third floor open-air sitting area. So some
students will be invited out.
This is the reading hearth, this is probably the quietest place in the library. Everything
else in the library is pretty lively, so this is a student sitting area, it is a quiet space.
We have a 30-foot cantilever in this area, we also have the second largest fireplace
in the state of Michigan. It's a longleaf fireplace, it was built in Canada, it's pretty
fantastic, it's going to be a pretty great element.