Madonna University gets $1.5 million green building grant

metromode, 1/29/2009

The Kresge Foundation is showering Madonna University with quite a few greenbacks now that the Livonia-based university is pushing forward with plans to use green-building techniques for its latest structure.

The foundation is giving Madonna a $1.5 million challenge grant to fund the university's $20 million Science and Media Building. Madonna needs to make the building environmentally friendly and raise $3.25 million by January 2010 to secure the grant.

The new building will house the university's growing science program, providing space for state-of-the-art laboratories. It will also provide top-shelf space for production facilities for its broadcast and cinema arts program. Classrooms, seminar rooms, a lecture hall and a high-definition media studio will round out the building's 60,000 square feet.

The building's green virtues will include recycled materials, energy-efficient windows and lighting and a green roof. All of that and more will allow Madonna to go for LEED certification. It could be Livonia’s first LEED-certified building.

Madonna's Leading the Way Campaign is trying to find most of the funding for the project. So far it has raised more than $14 million of its $50 million goal.

Source: Madonna University
Writer: Jon Zemke