The Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) is the world's first and only art museum whose entire facility is LEED certified Gold. Located in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, GRAM presents exhibitions of national caliber and regional distinction. The museum collection spans Renaissance to Modern art, with particular strength in European and American 19th and 20th century painting and sculpture. In total, GRAM’s collection consists of 5,000 works of art, with a particular strength in modern.

GRAM’s collection also includes a growing collection of design and modern craft and the work of leading artists from the Michigan and Great Lakes region.

With its new facility, featuring 20,000 square feet of exhibition space, GRAM is able to host exhibitions of international acclaim and presentations coordinated exclusively by the organization.

The concrete and glass building, completed in 2007, capitalizes on the city’s dramatic vistas and striking landscape, creating continuity between the art within the museum and the natural environment surrounding it.

The building is organized around a central pavilion of glass and light-colored concrete flanked by a reflecting pool, a pocket park with a water wall and open-air sculpture and dining courtyards. As visitors move from the pavilion towards the gallery wing, natural light gives the space a sense of upward procession towards the special exhibition and permanent collection galleries.

The three-floor gallery wing features glass skylight lanterns which invite natural light into the space, and illuminates the building at night. In addition to its galleries, the building design includes a multi-use, flexible seating auditorium, education center, art reference library, café and museum shop as well as conference and study rooms.

Outside, a large portico with an expansive roof canopy cantilevered toward the park extends the building’s connection to Ecliptic, providing shaded comfort in warm weather and a protected area from which to view ice skaters on the Ecliptic rink in the winter.

Parkland, plantings and water features of the new GRAM have been maximized to reduce the urban “heat island” effect caused by paved surfaces. The museum’s exterior landscaping and plantings are plotted to make the most efficient use of water and other resources.

The roof, which covers 90-100,000 square feet, includes 60 mil, fully adhered EPDM from Firestone Building Products with two layers of 1 1/2 poly plus taper on top, which is then coated with white coating mop or roll on

EPDM helped to provide reflectivity on the roof because of the white coating, which also assisted in combating the heat island effect. The EPDM (ethylene propylene diene terpolymer) single-ply rubber roofing membrane has been an appealing choice of the low-slope commercial roofing industry for over 40 years.

It is the number one roofing choice of architects, roof consultants and contractors for both new construction and replacement roofing projects according to market surveys from Building Design and Construction, and Roofing/Siding/Insulation magazines, and the National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA).

EPDM is used in 1 billion square feet of new roof coverings in the United States annually, as well as more than 500,000 warranted roof installations on 20 billion-plus square feet.

Air Conditioning The building’s air conditioning and filtration systems is a passive system via vapor misting using zero HCFC (hydrochlorofluorocarbon) emissions and strict CO2 emissions monitoring.

Lighting The building’s lighting systems includes external fixed louvers and an interior shading system to diffuse natural light through the museum, lantern skylight system in galleries, skylight louvers in galleries, adjustable to accommodate varied exhibitions.

Water Recycled rainwater will be used in systems throughout the facility, including toilet flushes, planting irrigation, reflecting pool and water wall.

Insulation The building’s insulation systems include light-colored concrete walls, three-layer UV filter glass in windows, insulating Aragon gas between glass window panels and low-emission coatings on all components.

Recycling The museum operates a strict recycling policy to decrease day-to-day environmental impact

Construction Environmentally friendly measures taken during the building process included 10% recycled materials used in construction, 20% of all materials used in construction, including wood and concrete, obtained from local sources, wood products obtained from Forest Service Council-certified lumberyards, recycling of waste created during construction.

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

USGBC is a non-profit organization committed to expanding sustainable building practices. USGBC is composed of more than 15,000 organizations from across the building industry that are working to advance structures that are environmentally responsible, profitable, and healthy places to live and work. Members includes building owners and end-users, real estate developers, facility managers, architects, designers, engineers, general contractors, subcontractors, product and building system manufacturers, government agencies, and nonprofits.

"We used EPDM because of its durability; we’re well aware of EPDM’s long history of performance. Going through the design process, we counted on that history for a building with a planned 50-year lifecycle assessment. We consider this a green roof, just not in color."
Shane Napper
Project Manager
Rockford/Pepper Construction

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