thomas m. cooley law school - cooley center

The Cooley Center is the result of a complete reconfiguration of the Commerce Center, a fourteen story office building constructed in 1970. To accommodate the interior design and systems needs of the Owner, the building was structurally transformed into a ten-story facility by removing 8 of the 14 floors and building 4 new floors in the resulting voids; all remaining floors were reinforced for higher structural loading. The glass exterior of the original building was completely removed and replaced with a reinforced masonry wall system featuring brick and limestone accented by two-story expanses of glass curtain wall. The 222,000 square foot Cooley Center houses the law school’s administrative, faculty and student services offices.

Challenge: The site of this building is in a key location for Cooley Law School, however the original structure was speculative and not conducive to the special requirements of a prominent Law School and its administration and teaching facilities. The challenge to the design team was to convert an existing building, designed to only meet code, into a first class facility that could support the educational and administrative needs of Cooley Law School continuing the Cooley tradition of historically significant buildings in downtown Lansing.