At
Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., an athletics and recreational facility project preserved the past while using some very modern construction ideas.
When the college decided its old athletics buildings—some built 80 years ago—needed to be torn down to make way for a new and more spacious facility, it knew it wanted to pursue sustainable construction methods. In particular, Macalester wanted to minimize the amount of material sent to landfills as well as respect the campus’ past by repurposing the old building components.
The Veit Companies, Rogers, Minn., met this challenge by deconstructing three athletic buildings totaling 104,000 square feet and reusing or recycling almost all the building materials. Bleachers and scoreboards, for example, were salvaged for reuse in the college’s new athletics facility.
Veit also pursued a unique opportunity to preserve the wood trusses framing the old field house to build the roof and frame for a new saddlebred horse stable for the Maple Hill Stable Company in Buffalo, Minn., about 50 miles away.
“The university was very excited about the prospect of being able to repurpose or recycle components of the old structure,” says Chuck Geisler, Veit executive manager of sales and marketing. “They never in their wildest imagination thought it would be reassembled piece by piece.”
Managing the detailed demolition for the two-year project required Veit to complete a multi-step process to document and sort the building materials.
First, the company worked with the stable owner to determine which materials it wanted to use in the new structure. Next, crews numbered and labeled the large purlins, wooden beams and brackets so they could be reassembled easily. The entire assembly was photo-documented before demolition. In addition, crews cut and trimmed the truss materials to account for the slightly shorter width of the barn.
“We needed to make sure it came apart precisely and we didn’t damage anything, and that added complexity to the site,” Geisler says. “The site was very organized so materials could be staged and offloaded offsite in an organized manner.”
Through relationships with multiple area salvage companies, Veit found a home for 93.3 percent of the demolition materials. The wood, steel and scrap not used to build the barn were sent to Veit’s sort-and-pick recycling facility in Minneapolis.
The profits from the resale of materials offset the increased labor costs of the demolition project.
Macalester’s motivation for building green was holistic: promoting sustainability on campus while benefiting the community.
“We found it very exciting that Macalester had goals and objectives that were sustainability-oriented,” Geisler says. “That was refreshing for us because that’s not always the case outside of academics. It takes a pretty unique client or owner to stay committed to this kind of project.”
The school’s new $45 million, 175,000-square-foot Leonard Center athletic facility, constructed by McGough Companies, St. Paul, incorporates several green components, such as efficient heating and cooling and natural lighting.