The knowledge and experiences I have amassed during the multiple phases of the FLITE project as a project engineer for Granger Construction are far too extensive to list. What I can attest to though is that to have the opportunity to work on a project of this magnitude and complexity with such a talented group of design professionals, contractors and an owner who is highly involved in all aspects of the project at a relatively early stage in my career has far exceeded my expectations.

I can say without hesitation that the FLITE project will serve as a benchmark by which to compare future projects and the level of quality, craftsmanship and integrity, which are attainable. It has been a pleasure and a true sense of accomplishment to be a member of this project team.
-Marc Alexa, Project Engineer, Granger Construction Company

In my opinion, FLITE is the academic and intellectual center of Ferris State University's campus. My goal and challenge when designing the content of the new library's mural was to create a visual statement that in simple terms presented to the viewer a series of philosophical questions. These individual questions are subjective in nature and will be rendered to solicit a wide variety of individual interpretations. It is intriguing to consider the role of this piece of public art in a facility where the furniture and architecture were carefully designed to promote study and meditation for its occupants and visitors. It is exciting to create a design that serves as a catalyst to exercise ones mind with the expressed intent to stimulate thought and discussion just as the building is intended to do with its individual, group, quiet, and animated spaces. 

I am currently in the process of creating this two-dimensional visual parable in oil and anticipate its completion in about 20 months when it will be hung on the serpentine wall in the Extended Study Area. My goal is that this 10 x 130 mural, like a good novel, will seduce the viewer.
-Robert Barnum, Resident Artist/Associate Professor, Humanities


Since the opening of FLITE, I can say that it highly affected my success with the remainder of the Winter 2001 semester. I had 19 credits, two jobs, and involvement in many organizations so it was hard to find quiet time. Once I visited the new library I couldn't believe the resources available as well as the ease of finding what I was looking for. I was able to go to the library and expect to be able to find a quiet corner away from the traffic or find a place in which my classmates and I could work on a project. No matter how busy it was, there was always a place to go. I think it was with the help of this new facility and its technology that I was able to keep one of my scholastic goals by maintaining a 3.5 CGPA.
-Teresa Carson, Senior in English Education


The dream that Governor Ferris had about this institution as an educational facility for the people of Michigan could not have been complete without the latest acquisition of FSU: FLITE. As FSU students, we have witnessed this project being born in the months of its construction. One grows attached to a particular project especially if one sees it develop.

At the beginning I grew attached to the building with its daring shape, proudly defying time: ready for the architecture of the future but at the same time fully integrated in the architectural whole of the campus. Once FLITE was opened I grew attached to its people and places: everybody is so welcoming that they transmit it to the rooms. On the first floor as soon as I walk in, I am invited to take a seat and be connected in an instant to the entire world: yes, FLITE offers more than 300 seats with PCs; the whole world is at my fingertips! Projects and assignments are a piece of cake when done in FLITE. On the next floors I feel so comfortable that I choose one of the many study reading spaces over my own dorm room. I particularly fancy the reading areas on the second and third floors with a view of the quad. It is a splendor on a summer afternoon.

The first day I set foot in FLITE, on the opening day, I felt like I was on the Titanic: everything was so imposing and grand... All was new, nothing had been used ever and the smell of fresh paint and furniture was overwhelming! It was an experience that has now become one of my most precious memories.

Another one of FLITE's best-guarded secrets, is the spiral stair case leading from the second to the third floor. Its unique form makes me think of the medieval citadels from the Europe of the Dark Ages... This is a subtle irony of the architect: making the visitor think of the Dark Ages in a place that hosts so many books, BOOKS - the tool that pulled mankind out of those Dark Ages... Thus, FLITE, a citadel of eternal knowledge will anchor the FSU campus permanently to the "Century of Lights."

An impressing variety of book collections ranging from fiction to technical books and from legal documents to newspapers and magazines and its people and facilities makes FLITE a great advocate in favor of READING, stopping thus the TV sets on campus from transforming all students into couch potatoes.

Our contemporary civilization is a sum of knowledge and memories accumulated by previous generations. We cannot be an integral part of this civilization except through a permanent contact with what the generations setting the basis of this civilization have thought about... The only way to keep the contact and thus to become a cultivated person is READING! (Andre Maurois, 1885-1967). FLITE is providing us with the means, we just have to follow the lead and use them.
-Mircea-Ioan Cotosman, Sophomore in Pre-Law (from Romania)


A year ago, during a memorial for those students, faculty and emeriti of Ferris who had died during the past year, I had occasion to look across the quad toward the newly emerging FLITE building. My mind flashed back to town squares that I visited in Europe. Most were dominated by a stately cathedral gracing one side or the other of the square. It seemed that these cathedrals reflected the deep religious commitment that one would expect to find among the people for this source of enrichment in their lives.

So it is with the FLITE building. It is easy to visualize it as a cathedral of knowledge, which will enrich the lives of all who seek wisdom within its portals. Its eminence within the physical complex of the University will serve to project the degree of commitment to knowledge that undergirds the mission of the Ferris community. It stands as a lodestone to all those who seek the knowledge needed for a better tomorrow.
-John (Jack) R. Fleming, Professor Emeritus


Oak is often used for its beauty and strength. That's how I would like to describe FLITE, beauty and strength, with its oak handrails, window and door casings, and miles of oak baseboard. It has been a wonderful experience working on the library project.
-George Geister, Carpenter Foreman, Granger Construction


With an expanding world there is a need to have access to a way to keep in contact with everything. FLITE enables students here to do that. The new library is a definite improvement to the old one. It is also an asset to the campus. The extended hours of operation are very accommodating to the students needs. FLITE also provides an environment that makes it easy to get all you have to do, done.
-Sarah Halsey, Junior in Pre-Science


FLITE is great! From the environment of shushing librarians in the former Timme Library to the rhythm of tapping keys in the FLITE Information Commons, we have come a long way. When I came to Ferris as a student in 1974, I was in awe at the size of the Library. Now as a FLITE employee, I walk miles every day in a facility three times the size of that structure, assisting patrons in their search for information. When I was a student, I used indexes to find resources and it always seemed as though someone else had the volume that I needed. Now with our digital library, multiple users can simultaneously access a variety of electronic indexes and databases, eliminating the need to stand in line. 

I am very happy that we have this wonderful facility and are able to offer improved services to our students and the community. 
-Dorothy Hart, Library Assistant, 1976 Graduate of FSU Library Technician program


When we started planning for FLITE, we envisioned a teaching, learning and research center for the campus. We finished with something much more. We were unable to locate the building where we had originally planned. That turned out to be one of the most fortuitous pieces of bad luck in the whole project as we not only had to rethink the location of the building but also ended up developing a revised campus master plan. The result has transformed the campus. We now not only have a learning, teaching and research facility but also a front door, campus green, and a gathering center for the University. The location of the building has made it a keystone to the campus community.
-Dale Hobart, Manager, Instructional Technologies


My first visit to the Ferris library was as a freshman in June 1973. As a student in the Library Technology program and later in the Learning Resources Management program, many hours were spent in the building as the classes for those programs were taught in the 3rd floor classroom. Joining the library staff in 1977 gave me the opportunity to see and be a part of many changes in the Ferris library: growth of the book collection, print materials placed on microfiche, converting from the card catalog to an online catalog, and remodeling of areas to better use our limited space. 

FLITE opened on March 12, 2001. Each time I walk through the main entrance, I get a sense of awe. FLITE is not only a functional building, but is also pleasant to look at. I am most impressed with the various types of seating available to the student, be it individual, group, casual or study areas we have it! The constant noise of the keyboards clicking has become a pleasant sound, as it is an indication that students are accessing databases, the Internet or software application programs available for their use. FLITE is a very inviting environment whether one is pursuing academics or just relaxing. 
-Lyle E. Mourer, Jr., Library Associate
1976 Graduate of FSU Library Technician program


Long before the FLITE building was constructed, I looked forward to being a finish carpenter there. Now after its completion, I am pleased to say it was not only challenging but also very rewarding. I put a lot of pride into my work and left this fine building with a great sense of accomplishment.
-Richard A. Parker, Union Carpenter, Granger Construction


I really think FLITE was a good venture for Ferris State University. It fulfills the interests of the students, being very centrally located and containing all the previous librarys material; the interests of onlookers and tourists by beautifying the campus quad; and the interests of Ferris's presentation as a university, suggesting a very up-to-date, and current institution.

Looking over FLITE, the statue of Woodbridge Ferris, and the new campus quad, makes you think, Yes, this is what a great university should look like.
-Amanda Radice, Senior in Plastics Engineering Technology (born in Chile)


My wife and I have always enjoyed visiting college and university campuses, those havens of intellectual curiosity amid the bustle of commerce. Invariably, when I begin exploring a new campus, I look first not for the administration building nor faculty offices nor classrooms nor the athletic complex-rather I head for the library. And from that library I judge the entire fabric of the institution.

Quite often we find that the library is the most imposing building on campus-usually something with pillars, perhaps, if the institution is very well endowed, a dome. Inside, we typically find an atmosphere of hushed awe. And although some people feel at home in this sort of library, for others it can be quite intimidating and may leave the impression that learning is an aristocratic pursuit, for the chosen few.

This image of the library as a mausoleum of dusty volumes where we must walk softly and speak in whispers is misguided. Indeed, a library should be quite the opposite. A library, after all, should be a marketplace of ideas, bustling, buzzing, always astir with the best the human mind has to offer. We are fortunate here at Ferris that our new library evokes this very image. It stands strategically located at the most visible spot on the campus, a structure towering over its surroundings and reaching both upward and outward-like a great medieval cathedral, the intellectual, social and spiritual center of its community. Let us hope that this buildings symbolic design and its physical prominence will forever reflect the first priority of Ferris State University-an unending quest for knowledge.
-David L. Russell, Professor, Languages and Literature


Throughout civilization libraries, whether their holdings be of clay tablets, papyrus scrolls, manuscripts or the printed page, have been a fundamental institution - somewhat sacred, for the advancement and sustainment of great cultures. Now at Ferris, with the dedication of FLITE, we have joined the era of electronic storage and retrieval of knowledge with a nationally ranked facility.

Throughout The Autobiography of Woodbridge N. Ferris (FSU's first book placed on its Internet Web site) there are references to the books that awakened him to the rewarding use of libraries. Indeed we are taking a major step today in the quest "to make the world better" when we contrast this new library to the early Institute days decades before having a formal library. Then students were only allowed access to Mr. Ferris's bookshelves in his office after 4 p.m. Today, as a reminder of our humble library beginnings, one of those bookshelves is preserved in the Presidents Office. Looking ahead, what will the library be in 2084?
-Richard A. Santer, Professor Emeritus

FLITE stands as a symbolic gateway to our campus the same way that all digital libraries have become gateways to the ubiquitous and dynamic information sources created in the Digital Age. Progressive libraries such as FLITE are not simply repositories of information but have become gateways of access to the myriad forms of information required by all lifelong learners. This student-centered facility is organized and operated on the premise that digital information is multi-dimensional, interactive, dynamic, and growing exponentially. Most importantly, at the heart of this library are the dedicated professionals who work tirelessly to encourage our graduates to become information-literate, self-guided learners who can locate, access, evaluate, and apply relevant and reliable information using all the tools of the Information Age. In FLITE we see the best of Ferris: it is a place where people, resources, and a spirit of applied research and learning all converge to create a future-focused dedication to improving individuals, professions and communities. 
-Caroline Stern, Assistant Professor, Languages and Literature


I have been given the opportunity to express the pride and sense of accomplishment I have in supervising the construction of the FLITE project for Ferris State University.


Having been given the responsibility of bringing this beautifully designed and detailed building to a successful completion will always be the crowning achievement of a long career in the construction industry. I will be able to say, with great pride, that I had my small part in this beautiful structure.
-Bob Watson, Project Superintendent, Granger 
Construction Company