A focus on sustainability? That’s a key feature of a 10-acre, six-building U.S. headquarters project that Cunningham-Limp is now building for electrical-connection maker Japan Solderless Terminals in the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills, Michigan.
The project at 35917 12 Mile Road is designed to serve as an homage to Japanese culture and design. More importantly, it boasts the goal of setting a new benchmark for sustainable construction. Cunningham-Limp is playing a key part in this process as the project’s construction manager.
All materials for this project are being naturally sourced. But unlike most new construction, JST’s new facility will feature no drywall, paint, structured steel, catch basins, storm pipes, carpet or other synthetic products. Instead, construction crews are building the entire six-building development out of natural materials.
Jake Gardner, project manager with Novi, Michigan-based Cunningham-Limp, says that this represents a new level of environmentally friendly construction.
“This project completely flips the traditional method of construction. It’s a craftsman approach on a commercial scale,” Gardner said in a statement. “The project is about using natural products to tell a story of cohabitation with the ecosystem. It just happens to be unfolding in a corporate setting.”
This is no simple project, either. Development on JST’s site began in 2019 after several years of planning. The first completed building, the Test Lab, is slated to open for employees in the fall of 2023.
A commitment to sustainability
Examples of sustainable practices on this project include:
- Harvesting an estimated 90 trees that were removed to clear space for the project. These trees will be used for building construction and furniture.
- Saplings from the 2019 ground-breaking were transported to a farm in Williamston, Michigan, where they can grow and eventually be re-planted on the JST property, a process scheduled to begin in the spring of 2024.
- Construction crews installed 72 geothermal wells 450 feet below the ground. These wells will regulate the temperatures of the buildings while relying on an energy efficient heating and cooling system.
- Landscaping crews are ridding the site of invasive species.
- Crews are following rules that ensure they will not disturb wetlands.
- Only about 4 acres of the 10-acre site have been disturbed. This fits with JST’s goal of utilizing only the minimum amount of land needed for the development.
- The project features thatched and green roofs and naturally harvested stone.
Then there is the interior of one of the six buildings: This building will not feature furniture or electricity. The building’s domed roof and timber frames are wound tightly by instrumental strings. When the wind blows, these strings will send music throughout the property.
Samuel Ashley, president of Cunningham-Limp, said that his company was eager to participate in this development. It gave the construction-management company the chance to tackle a sprawling project relying solely on sustainable construction methods.
Ashley first heard about the JST project during an introductory meeting designed to highlight its sustainability goals.
“My first reaction was disbelieve,” Ashley said in a statement. “I couldn’t imagine that something of this thought, vision and investment would ever be undertaken in our region.”
Cunningham-Limp participated in more introductory meetings with JST and eventually built a workin relationships with the Farmington Hills-based company, which manufactures connectors, terminals and splices.
“Little did I know that those first few meetings would turn into six years of strategic and thoughtful planning and preparation.”
The project is expected to be complete in 2025. The JST project will include about 79,000 square feet of building space. In adddition to JST, the owner of the owner of the project, and Cunningham-Limp, other key companies involved in the development of the site include design architect RAA, architect of record Arcari + Iovino, civil engineer Atwell, structural engineer MPP Engineers and MEP engineer Princeton Engineering Group.
