Hundreds of geothermal wells, a partial grass rooftop and other changes will make their way to two Washtenaw Community College buildings used to teach the skilled trades.

Those and other changes are on the way to campus, thanks to $14.8 million in state funds requeseted by the college in 2008. The greening of new and renovated campus buildings is part of a larger ongoing effort to make WCC more “carbon neutral” by 2050.

Design plans for the environmental science corridor, part of a $13.5 million overhaul of Washtenaw Community College's 30-year old occupational education building, which houses a number of skilled trades programs.

Rendering courtesy of WCC

Dale Petty, chair of the campus environmental committee, said the school has taken a number of steps toward that goal since 2007. That year, WCC President Larry Whitworth pledged to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from the campus by 2050. Over 600 colleges nationwide have also signed the same American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment.

Since then, it's taken greenhouse gas inventory, encouraged students, faculty and staff to ride the bus and subsidized the cost, and created a board policy to “green” new and renovated campus facilities.

Along those lines, the $13.5 million overhaul of the Occupational Education building got the go-ahead Tuesday. The WCC Board of Trustees approved entering into an $11.4 million contract with Ann Arbor-based Spence Brothers to do the renovation work on its 30-year-old facility, which houses programs like auto repair, welding and early childhood development.

Once the work is complete in August 2011, a new environmental science program will also occupy the building, though no details on the new program were available at the board’s monthly meeting Tuesday.

Most of the renovations to the 120,000-square-foot occupational education building will be “mechanical,” said Damon Flowers, associate vice president of facilities development and operations. 

Those will include upgrades to electrical and heating and cooling system that take the building off the campus grid via geothermal wells. A new roof - fashioned partly from reflective, energy-efficient material and partly of grass - should also lead to energy savings. While the changes cost millions up front, energy savings will benefit the college in the long run, Flowers said.

A vacant skilled trades annex will also receive $1.3 million in state funds for renovations. The board approved Ann Arbor-based Hobbs + Black as the architects for that job. 

Plans include re-designing the 7,500-square-foot space into a classroom for the college’s construction program, where students will have the space to learn to build houses hands-on.

That program is currently housed in leased space in Ypsilanti Township.

Juliana Keeping is a higher education reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at julianakeeping@annarbor.com or 734-623-2528.