Building Legacies
John C. Kennedy Hall of Engineering
As part of the Seymour and Esther Padnos School of Engineering, the John C. Kennedy Hall of Engineering is the most recent building in the complex. Honoring the CEO of Autocam Corporation and former GVSU trustee, John Kennedy was the lead donor for the Hall of Engineering project. The university celebrated the opening of the building in October, 2007.
The John C. Kennedy Hall of Engineering connects the Keller Engineering Laboratories with the Eberhard Center all of which are located on the Grand River and overlook the city of Grand Rapids.
The Hall of Engineering boasts twenty-one labs, an electron microscope, a "clean room" for contaminant free nanotechnology work, and a laboratory to create circuit boards and robotic automation components.
Sustainability Facts
John C. Kennedy Hall of Engineering – Located on Grand Valley State University’s Pew Campus in Grand Rapids, the Kennedy Hall of Engineering is the university’s third completed LEED facility. This building focuses on water conservation, energy use reduction and indoor environmental quality. Several sustainable features of the building include:
- 15,000 Square-Feet Green Roof – The use of a green, or vegetated roof, offers many sustainable benefits including the reduction of storm water runoff due to the absorption of water by plants. Also, the plants and growing medium provide an extra layer of insulation thus reducing the heating and cooling loads on the buildings.
- Ice Bank Air Conditioning – Ice is used to cool the air that runs through the building during peak loading periods during the day and at night, when there is less of a demand for cooling the system regenerates itself.
- Construction Waste Management – More than 97% of construction waste from this project was recycled. Metals, concrete, drywall and wood are several examples of materials that were recycled.
For more information regarding sustainability at GVSU, click here.
Page last modified May 7, 2013
