A Higher Standard: The Christman Building
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Christman building in Lansing, MI not only is a state landmark but also made history as the world's first building to be awarded two LEED Platinum certifications (LEED Core and Shell and LEED Commercial Interiors). Preserving the building's rich architectural history and achieving LEED certification challenged The Christman Company as well as Detroit-based SmithGroup, the architect and engineer of record for the project. A raised access floor system was the solution — one that uniquely supported both historic preservation and sustainability, helping to adapt the historic building to meet the needs of a 21st century corporate facility...."I think that’s one of the neat things about the raised floor system. More than any other system I'm aware of, it allows new systems to go in buildings, new or historic, that weren't necessarily made to be flexible and contributes in a big way to their sustainability, in this case without compromising the building's historic integrity."
Ron Staley, senior vice president, Mid-Atlantic operations and director,
historic preservation at The Christman Company
ED+C, June 2010