PHOTO CAPTION: (Above) North Hall, the four-story, 402 bed residence hall opened on
Ferris State University’s Big Rapids campus in August 2017, has been given LEED Gold
status for energy conservation by the U.S. Green Building Council. (At the bottom
of the page) is a video from the opening of North Hall at the start of the 2017-18
academic year.
See video from the opening of North Hall.
Ferris State University Physical Plant administrators have learned North Hall, the
student residential facility opened on the Big Rapids campus in August 2017, has earned
LEED Gold certification for its energy usage, based on criteria established by the
United States Green Building Council.
The honor is the fifth for the university, with previous LEED, or Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design Gold awards, earned for new construction of East Campus Suites
and 
the Michigan College of Optometry building, in addition to renovations of the Woodbridge
N. Ferris Building, in Grand Rapids, and the University Center building, on main campus.
Physical Plant Senior Project Manager Joseph Haupt said all state of Michigan capital outlay construction projects for the Big Rapids campus, adopted by the University’s Board of Trustees, mandate achievement of LEED Silver certification, as the minimum standard, whether it is a renovation or new-construction project. When North Hall was opened to students, officials were cautiously optimistic the project would earn LEED Gold status.
“Our design and construction management partners worked diligently with a third-party LEED consultant to help facilitate the design and construction criteria required by USGBC to meet the university’s mandate of LEED Silver certification,” Haupt said. “Our design and construction management partners conducted monthly meetings with our third-party consultant to ensure the council’s criteria were either met or exceeded during the design and construction phases of the project. Once the project is substantially complete, our construction management team has to go through an extensive documentation and submission process to gain the USGBC’s LEED Gold status, which is awarded to projects that score 60 to 79 points on their USGBC report.”
More information on LEED standards is available from the U.S. Green Building Council.
“We were pleased to achieve LEED Gold status with the North Hall project,” Haupt said.
“We couldn’t have done it without the collaboration between our design and construction
management partners as well as the third-party LEED consultant.”