To serve the recreational and mental well-being of its students, Michigan State University (MSU) is making progress on the Student Recreation and Wellness Center project.
The new, three-story 293,000-square-foot facility will include several gymnasiums and multi-activity courts, a turf arena, indoor running track, strength and fitness studios, a climbing wall, sports simulators, table tennis, two university classrooms, and more.
It also will include a 50-meter (160-foot) recreational pool that can support simultaneous uses, such as courses, water fitness, and open swim.
However, the natatorium was not included in the original scope of the project. The university added it after the project had commenced. There had been talk about whether or not to include it as part of the project, but the excess cost for the natatorium proved to be more than the university could justify approving. So, with funding in doubt, the project initially moved forward without it.
“We always knew it was a strong possibility the university would add the natatorium, so we planned and budgeted for it,” said Bill Bofysil, Project Director at Granger Construction, which is the construction manager for the project.
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The site for the new facility is in the northern portion of the former Cherry Lane site, bounded by Shaw Lane, Birch, Harrison, and Wilson roads in the north mixed-use district.
A brick building on that site, formerly known as the Faculty Bricks building, was demolished. This project will also allow for future demolition of MSU’s Intramural Recreative Sports West building, which the university reports has a 10-year, $46 million capital renewal need.
Granger Construction performed the demolition work. “The demolition work went smoothly,” Bofysil said. “All we had to do was remove some existing electrical gear inside the building to facilitate the demolition.”
The site was not providing enough utilization to the university. According to MSU’s website, their principal recreation facilities “range in age from 40 to 100 years old and have significant deferred maintenance, insufficient capacity, and lack amenities that students desire. The university previously did not have a dedicated funding stream to maintain and renew these facilities, and it has been a struggle to meet student needs.”
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In order to meet these needs, the university instituted a student recreational facility fee in 2021, which is contributing to funding the $200 million project.
The project is on schedule for substantial completion of the recreation center in February 2026 and will be open to students in May 2026. The natatorium, which was added after the project started, is expected to be complete in August 2026.
Construction projects have a lot of moving parts and rely on cooperation with numerous partners, such as the owner, subcontractors, and vendors. (See “Behind the Build”) For this reason, plus funding and weather issues, it can be challenging to complete construction projects on time, while staying on budget. In fact, according to global management company McKinsey & Company, “large projects across asset classes typically take 20 percent longer to finish than scheduled and are up to 80 percent over budget.”
Granger Construction worked from the start to ensure their design team came up with a design that made all the stakeholders happy while getting buy-in from the stakeholders as early as possible.
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“We pushed the design team and the owners to facilitate our construction during appropriate seasons,” Bofysil said. “We held a workshop every day with other partners, and we outlined what we needed from them and the negative consequences of not making a decision by the desired time. By making everyone accountable for how they are impacting the schedule, we were able to move forward in a timely manner.”
Having a workshop schedule that included weekly touchpoints with so many significant aspects of the construction project helped with keeping parties informed and on the same page, as well as keeping the project on schedule.
Although Granger pushed the owners to make decisions at a more rapid schedule, Bofysil said that the owners are happy with the project to date, which is about two-thirds complete.
A construction project of this size is built using millions of data points, and changes to the design data can occur daily. To manage this, it can be helpful to have all the design data in one place that is updated in real time and can be accessed and changed by project partners.
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On this project, Granger Construction used Autodesk Navisworks. With Navisworks, Granger visualized and unified design and construction data within a single federated model. First, they submitted overall building designs to the subcontractors, and then each subcontractor submitted their additions based on the work they are contracted to do. Then, Granger Construction used Navisworks to combine each model to identify and resolve clash and interference problems.
All project data is being saved to Autodesk Construction Cloud and is available to all partners who have permission.
“We had a great group of subcontractors who love to leverage technology,” Bofysil said. “We incorporated that process into the building, and we were able to complete the BIM process two weeks early.”
Granger Construction self-performed the concrete. In the fall of 2023, they placed most of the concrete — the footings, foundations, and slab — on grade for the recreation center, and they placed the footings and the foundations for the natatorium in the fall of 2024.
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“It was really important to us to get the concrete for the main building placed before winter,” Bofysil said. “Then we could start with the steel in the spring as soon as we could.”
Altogether, the company has placed 11,500 cubic yards of concrete. Most of that was with a pump truck. Some of it was with a forklift with a concrete mixer attachment.
They have since poured concrete for the second floor of the recreation center. In the summer of 2025, they will pour the slab on grade for the natatorium after the pool is installed.
Granger Construction completed some very large pours, with the largest being 32,800 square feet. “Pours would typically start at 1 a.m., and we would finish by 5 p.m.,” Bofysil said.
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They ran three crews — one for concrete placement, one for concrete finishing, and one small crew for sawcutting.
“Once the project is complete, the structure is going to be iconic,” Bofysil said. It’s a long overdue facility for the students, which will include numerous new features, such as a climbing wall, a fitness area, and pool. It’s a great time, and I’m looking forward to completing this.”
Many different trades and suppliers have come together to make sure that this $200 million project finishes on time and on budget. Granger met weekly with key stakeholders to ensure decisions were being made in a time that allows for the project to meet the proposed project schedule.
The following is a list of all who were involved and what they contributed to the project:
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- Granger (structural concrete)
- Fessler & Bowman (site concrete)
- McKearney (asphalt services)
- Douglas Steel, Davenport Masonry, and Christman Constructors (general trades services)
- Mid Michigan Roofing and ISI (caulking and waterproofing)
- Saylor’s (fireproofing)
- AMI (metal panels and Taktl wall panels)
- Birdair (ETFE skylights)
- Lansing Glass (interior and exterior glass)
- Reichenbach (exterior studs, integrity for interior studs)
- Superior Flooring (tile, carpet, LVT, and epoxy floors)
- Kuhn Specialty Flooring (wood flooring)
- Kiefer Flooring (athletic flooring)
- AstroTurf (turf)
- Mid Michigan Pride Painting (painting services)
- Valley City Sign (signage)
- C&M Associates (gym equipment)
- EP Climbing (climbing wall)
- Myrtha (pool)
- John E. Green (mechanical piping)
- Texas Aquatic (triangle window fashions installation)
- Elevator Service Co. (elevators)
- John E. Green and Myers Plumbing (mechanical piping)
- Dee Cramer Sheet Metal (sheet metal)
- Feyen Zylstra (low-voltage solutions)
- Bluewater (audio and video)
- Central Excavation (earthwork services)
