KALAMAZOO COLLEGE
Kalamazoo College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (The Arcus Center) is the world’s first purpose-built structure dedicated to developing emerging leaders and sustaining existing leaders in human rights and social justice.
This one-of-a-kind, $5 million, 10,000-square-foot, Y-shaped, steel-frame, single-story pavilion embodies the College’s founding commitment to being a catalyst for positive social change and will serve as the hearth for social justice globally.
The Arcus Center is located on a tight, sloped site at the corner of a major campus intersection. It was constructed utilizing nontraditional construction processes to fulfill its principles of economic, social, and environmental justice.
Michigan-sourced White Cedar was used to construct the cordwood masonry exterior. 2,000 logs were cut into 16,000 pieces and set in mortar to look like a brick wall. Each log has its own unique color, shape, and size, reflecting the diversity of the population that the Arcus Center will serve. In addition, this is the largest commercial application of cordwood construction in the United States. The building incorporates sustainable building practices and is LEED Silver Certified.
One of the primary objectives for this project was to assist in creating a vibrant, high-performing, diverse workforce that would set the standard for the College and the entire region for racial and gender equity. Miller-Davis Company assimilated the Arcus Center’s workforce diversity expectations into the entire construction process by establishing goals, developing and implementing strategies and formulating a tracking mechanism for measurable results – all accomplished without impacting project cost.
The architect is Studio Gang Architects. Jeanne Gang, a principal and the founder of Studio Gang Architects, is a 2011 MacArthur Fellow – “genius grant” recipient.
Miller Davis won a 2015 AGC of America Build America Award, the construction industry’s “Oscars,” and a 2014 Build Michigan Award from the AGC of Michigan. Additionally, Miller Davis was awarded the first-ever Grand Award from the AGC of Michigan for the Arcus Center.
