A group of Fort Lewis College engineering students left a unique mark on the campus: the first student-designed building.
Seven Physics and Engineering Department students spent the fall 2015 semester designing a composting and equipment storage facility for FLC’s Environmental Center, a student organization that focuses on sustainable practices and ethical treatment of the environment, said Laurie Williams, engineering professor at FLC and faculty mentor to the seniors. It was part of their senior seminar capstone experience.
The project required the students to comply with Colorado state building codes, guidelines under the Americans with Disabilities Act as well as meet the needs of the Environmental Center and expectations of FLC, Williams said. “It was a real client-engineer situation where they had to repeatedly go back and get information clarified and get through several iterations.”
The seniors and Williams applied for grants through the college and La Plata Electric Association, and they also received nongrant funding from FLC for the facility, said Matt Kleinert, a senior involved in the design. “We ended up having a budget of $40,000, which is the biggest senior seminar that’s ever happened here.”
The need for the facility was established last summer when Rachael Landis, director of the center, asked Williams for assistance with an issue with the center’s composting program, Williams said. “Ever since they started composting up here, there’s been an issue, because what they do is mix woodchips with food waste and the woodchips get dropped off at the Environmental Center garden, but they’re exposed to the elements,”
That means they get infested with rodents and are overly wet, which leads to unpleasant odors when they are run through the college’s composting machine in the Student Union, she said.
Landis believed it was an opportunity to further her organization’s mission of advancing sustainability and creating change through hands-on projects for students, she said.
While the building meets various standards it does not include all the aesthetic features the students hoped it would, Kleinert, said. That was because of Physical Plant aesthetics requirements, which sometimes conflicted with the students’ design.
“It’s usually just an expense thing is what it comes down to,” he said. “We’re trying to be very efficient with our money, and they’re just looking for the best product that they can get, which I understand.”
An example is the roofing materials used, Williams said. “We proposed doing our roofing with aluminum soda cans that we cut, pounded out and made shingles out of.”
A prototype was made by the students, but ultimately it falls to the college to maintain the facility, and it decided to use traditional metal roofing materials.
“The college is really meticulous. It’s not like they’re building a shed in someone’s backyard,” said Dean Mullen, co-owner of Scapegoat Landscaping.
Mullen was one of several community members who contributed advice in the design process and was also contracted for excavation work and pouring concrete for the foundation, he said.
Final design approval came from Bill Hickum, who is a structural engineer with Goff Engineering, and Dean Brookie, a licensed architect, Williams said.
C West Code Consultants, a company based in Lakewood that is inspecting the new Geoscience, Physics and Engineering building on campus, is providing the final inspections for the composting facility.
Mullen, who graduated from FLC’s engineering program in 2013, said while the scope of the project is beyond those assigned during his time in the engineering program, he understands the high expectations put on the seniors, and he was glad to lend his services to his former adviser. “Dr. Williams is a very dear person to me; she helped me out a lot over the years.”
In the end, the students and professor involved in the design and other campus officials were happy with the outcome, Williams said. “It’s great for them to see something for their efforts. They’re not just coming out of this with a paper – they’ve actually, I think, improved the campus, and they’ve certainly improved the operations for the Environmental Center.”
Luke Perkins is a full-time student at Fort Lewis College and an intern at The Durango Herald. Reach him at [email protected].
