The Metro

This community-focused project will revitalize a century-old manufacturing warehouse into safe, supportive space for young people to gain hands-on education, training and career opportunities with an emphasis on the trades and local production.

The 75,000-square-foot renovation will incorporate offices, multipurpose rooms, community gathering and assembly spaces, a training and catering kitchen and associated café, and a 15,000-square-foot fabrication center. The resulting fabrication center will offer new technologies such as 3D printing as well as traditional tools for woodwork, metal work and textiles.

The project incorporates state-of-the-art energy-efficient technologies to lower long-term operating costs and ensure stability of the building’s operation. Sustainability measures contributing to the pursuit of LEED Platinum include:

• A 400kW solar rooftop coupled with a battery energy storage system linked to the facility’s primary electrical system.
• 32 geothermal wells for heating and cooling.
• Installation of a hydronic snow melt system on exterior concrete subsurfaces using excess heating capacity from the geothermal system.
• Rainwater harvesting system for facility irrigation.
• Installation of a fully integrated building management system (BMS) to monitor and regulate electrical and mechanical equipment.