EAST LANSING, MI — The Michigan State University (MSU) Tom Izzo Football Building was among four projects selected to receive a 2025 Associated General Contractors (AGC) Build Michigan Award. Granger team members joined owners, design partners, and other industry peers in celebrating during the Annual Meeting and Award Ceremony in Detroit, Michigan.
The MSU Izzo Football Building project involved right-sizing the existing building for an NCAA Division 1 football program, which was undersized by approximately 40 percent compared to new and renovated facilities in the Big Ten Conference and across the country. The facility provides new training areas and amenities. It invests in high-performance training equipment and recovery spaces, along with equipment and technology.
The project team was tasked with converting a building originally constructed in the 1980s into a facility that supports the university and the football program’s mission and vision. Granger Construction knew the first step in achieving their vision involved forming a high-performing team with prior experience at MSU, specifically tailored to execute an extremely fast-paced project. Next, they required key subcontractors to participate in weekly trade-specific workshops by making them part of the Specific Instructions to Bidders — a first for Granger and MSU.
The team’s knowledge of the university’s needs and their ability to collaborate enabled them to meet rigorous deadlines and provide innovative solutions throughout the project. The weekly trades workshops played a crucial role in this process, as did advocating for athletics and other stakeholders to be fully engaged, from early design input all the way through construction. This heavy involvement from MSU Athletics and other building user groups greatly enhanced timely decision-making and ensured there were no surprises along the way.
Located on a micro site in the heart of a large bustling campus, surrounded by heavily traversed roads and sidewalks, the key scope of work involved demolishing a portion of the existing building within a horseshoe-shaped complex and rebuilding in that same footprint adjacent to existing occupied buildings. Work also included reworking spaces in the existing building and tying the new addition into those spaces. This was no small feat since all utilities for the remaining buildings ran through the building needing to be demolished. The team spent considerable time developing a phased demolition plan to successfully perform this portion of the work to ensure safety of building occupants and pedestrian traffic while also maintaining the rest of the building operations.
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Maintaining building operations meant working around a Big Ten, Division 1 football program that occupied the new locker room portion of the new building for three and a half months prior to the rest of the building being turned over, and completing those remaining spaces took place right in the middle of the 2023 football season. High-end finishes, aesthetics, and immersive experiences also played a huge role in this project. In addition, the team coordinated the procurement and installation of some of the most advanced technology and innovative spaces on the market.
Despite the tight schedule, the many procurement challenges, and the complexity of the work, the team exceeded all goals of the client and end users.
