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The Detroit School of Arts building made sustainability part of its educational mission by combining purpose-built arts spaces with a green roof, reflective roofing, and indoor-air-quality measures. The project profiled in a 2008 Building Enclosure article was designed as more than a school: it was intended to connect education, professional arts production, technology, business, and the surrounding Detroit community.
The figures are historical project data, not a statement of the school’s current enrollment or condition. The article reports a six-story, 286,219-square-foot building planned for 1,200 students, with a reported cost of $72.4 million. Students began occupying a substantial portion in February 2005, and the project was completed in August 2006.
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“Detroit School of Arts: Cool as it Gets” is the title of a June 5, 2008 architectural and sustainability profile by Tom Watts. It is not a film review, a current school guide, or a consumer product comparison. Its subject is the design of the Detroit School of Arts building and the way environmental strategies were folded into an arts-focused educational facility.
The school stands in downtown Detroit’s Cultural Center, near Orchestra Hall and the Max M. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. That setting matters to the project’s concept: the building was planned to sit within an existing arts ecosystem while giving students spaces and equipment associated with professional media and performance work.
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Hamilton Anderson Associates, the project architect, describes the building as Detroit’s first LEED-certified building. Neither the architect page nor the 2008 article identifies the LEED rating level, so no certification tier should be inferred.
How large was the Detroit School of Arts project?
The 2008 article reports a $72.4 million project with 286,219 square feet of floor area and six stories. Its stated capacity was 1,200 students. Those numbers describe the project as reported at the time; they should not be read as current enrollment, a present-day replacement cost, or evidence about the building’s current physical condition.
| Project detail | Historical figure reported in 2008 |
|---|---|
| Building area | 286,219 square feet |
| Height | Six stories |
| Planned capacity | 1,200 students |
| Reported project cost | $72.4 million |
| Substantial occupancy began | February 2005 |
| Project completion | August 2006 |
Prices checked November 2026.
The schedule illustrates that the building was delivered in phases from the users’ perspective: a substantial portion was occupied before the overall project reached completion. The source does not provide a later renovation history or an updated condition assessment.
Why were arts, media and technology central to the design?
The building’s sustainability story starts with its program. The article describes media and performing-arts spaces, professional production facilities, and partnerships intended to give students access to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Detroit Public Television. Media and performing-arts professionals helped author coursework, linking the physical rooms to an educational model based on real production practices.
In practical terms, that meant planning for spaces that could support rehearsal, performance, recording, broadcasting, and media instruction rather than treating the arts as an add-on to a conventional classroom block. Circulation, acoustics, technical infrastructure, and public-facing performance functions all had to coexist with everyday teaching spaces.
This integration also explains why the project is useful as a construction case study. Sustainability was not presented as a separate equipment package. Roof design, ventilation, finishes, daylight and views, and teaching goals were coordinated with the building’s educational and cultural role.
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What made the Detroit School of Arts building sustainable?
The reported strategy had four connected aims: use the roof as an instructional landscape, limit storm-water runoff, reduce heat absorbed by the building, and improve indoor air quality. The article presents these as design decisions made for a large institutional building, not as guarantees of a particular energy or water-saving percentage.
A green roof that doubled as a teaching tool
A green roof outside the Media Center was selected so students could study a visible building system. Paul Locher, associate and project architect at Hamilton Anderson Associates, explained the intent this way:
“A green roof was selected for outside the Media Center as a teaching tool for the students; reduce water runoff from the roof; reduce the urban heat island effect; and to provide a better visual to be viewed from inside the building.”
The quotation identifies four functions that are easy to separate but more powerful when designed together. Vegetation and growing media can retain or delay some rainfall before it reaches roof drains; planted surfaces can be cooler than exposed roofing during hot weather; and a roof visible from interior spaces can become part of the daily curriculum rather than an inaccessible maintenance zone.
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A reflective roof surface to limit heat gain
The project also used a highly reflective roof surface. The article says the intent was to reduce heat absorption and therefore reduce the need for air conditioning. Firestone Building Products is identified as the supplier of the reflective roofing system described in the article.
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Reflective roofing addresses solar heat gain at the roof surface; it does not eliminate the need for insulation, air sealing, shading, efficient equipment, or controls. Its value depends on the roof assembly, climate, exposure, maintenance, and the building’s operating schedule. The source supplies no measured energy reduction for this school, so a percentage savings claim would go beyond the evidence.
Low-emission finishes and better filtration
Indoor-air quality was addressed through low- to no-VOC paints and finishes, additional ventilation, and filtration measures. These choices are particularly relevant in a school with long occupied hours, dense classrooms, performance spaces, and technical rooms that may have different air-change needs.
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Low-emitting materials can reduce the introduction of certain chemical compounds during and after construction, while ventilation and filtration help manage contaminants that arise from occupants, equipment, dust, and outdoor air. Their effectiveness depends on commissioning, filter selection and replacement, outdoor-air controls, and ongoing operations. The article does not publish indoor-air measurements or a post-occupancy study.
How did LEED fit into the project?
LEED functioned as a framework and an external check on the project’s decisions. Locher described the purpose of certification as follows:
“A LEED rating is a way to have a third party validate the decisions and measures that have been implemented into the project (checks and balances).”
That distinction is important. Certification does not itself guarantee that every system performs perfectly over the building’s lifetime; it documents that a project pursued and substantiated requirements under the applicable rating system. The architect’s project page calls the school Detroit’s first LEED-certified building, but the reviewed sources do not state whether it was certified at Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum level.
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Locher also said:
“The project team delivered this LEED rated project with no cost increase over a traditionally designed project other than the LEED Certification fees.”
This is an attributed statement from the 2008 article, not an independent cost audit. It should be read as the project architect’s account of the cost outcome. The reported $72.4 million figure likewise comes from that article and has no inflation adjustment or later reconciliation in the reviewed sources.
What can building teams learn from the Detroit example?
The strongest lesson is to define environmental measures as part of the building’s use, not as decoration applied after the plans are complete. At the Detroit School of Arts, the roof was expected to manage water and heat while also serving as a visible teaching resource. The media and performance program gave the building a reason to make technical infrastructure, acoustics, air movement, and public access work together.
- Start with the educational or operational brief. Identify which spaces, schedules, equipment loads, and user groups drive resource use. A performance venue, recording room, classroom, and office do not have identical ventilation or acoustic requirements.
- Give every sustainability feature a defined job. A planted roof can support runoff management and instruction; a reflective membrane can address solar gain; low-emitting finishes can support an indoor-air-quality plan. Recording the intended outcome helps the owner maintain it.
- Coordinate the roof as a complete assembly. Structure, waterproofing, drainage, insulation, flashings, access, planting depth, wind exposure, and maintenance must be resolved together. Green-roof components cannot be specified independently of the roof’s structural and water-management design.
- Make visibility part of the curriculum. Locating the planted roof outside the Media Center meant students could see the system. Other projects might use energy dashboards, exposed mechanical systems, water-level indicators, or demonstration gardens for the same purpose.
- Plan indoor air quality from specification through operations. Material selection is only one layer. Ventilation rates, filtration, commissioning, cleaning practices, and filter replacement schedules determine whether the design intent survives occupancy.
- Use certification as a verification process. A third-party framework can create documentation, checkpoints, and accountability. It should complement—not replace—design judgment, commissioning, and post-occupancy management.
These principles are transferable, but the Detroit project’s exact details should not be treated as a universal template. A new building needs climate analysis, structural engineering, code review, lifecycle costing, and an operations plan suited to its own users.
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What does the source not tell us?
The available sources document the historical design intent, reported project figures, and the architect’s LEED claim. They do not establish current enrollment, current ownership or operations, the present condition of the green roof, later roof replacements, measured energy or water savings, or current certification status.
They also do not provide a comparative study showing that this building outperformed another school. The article includes a general assertion that green buildings can be associated with higher occupant satisfaction, lower operating costs, and higher performance, but it does not name a study or provide statistics for the Detroit School of Arts. Those statements should therefore be treated as general project-source context, not as measured results for this building.
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For anyone evaluating the project today, the responsible next step would be to obtain current facility records, roof inspections, utility data, commissioning documents, and certification records from the relevant owners or authorities. None of those current records is supplied in the reviewed material.
Why does this 2008 profile still matter to construction readers?
The project demonstrates how an institutional building can make sustainability legible to its occupants. Instead of hiding environmental systems in a technical appendix, the design put a planted roof beside a media center, connected the building to professional arts partners, and treated air quality and roof performance as part of the school’s everyday environment.
It also shows the value—and the limit—of project narratives. The reported size, cost, schedule, products, and design intentions provide a useful historical record. They do not replace measured performance data or a current condition survey. Reading the building on those terms produces a more accurate lesson: integrated design can align educational value, environmental goals, and architectural identity, but its long-term success depends on verification and maintenance after construction.
How we should interpret “Cool as it Gets”
The title is best understood as a description of an ambitious building concept, not a present-day performance rating. The Detroit School of Arts was conceived as a six-story arts and media institution in which a green roof, reflective roofing, low-emission finishes, ventilation, and filtration supported both building performance and learning. The project architect’s LEED claim adds a certification framework, while the 2008 article supplies the historical cost, area, capacity, and schedule.
Taken together, the sources support a clear conclusion: the school’s sustainability story was strongest where environmental systems had a visible educational or operational purpose. They do not support claims about current conditions or quantified savings that were never published.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was the Detroit School of Arts building completed?
The 2008 project profile says a substantial portion opened to students in February 2005 and that the overall project was completed in August 2006. Those dates describe the original delivery period, not later renovations or current operations.
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The building is in downtown Detroit’s Cultural Center, near Orchestra Hall and the Max M. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. The location reflects the project’s planned relationship with major arts institutions.
Does the project have a specific LEED rating level?
The reviewed architect page identifies the school as Detroit’s first LEED-certified building, but neither source states the rating level. It is therefore not possible to accurately label the project Silver, Gold, Platinum, or another tier from this evidence.
What performance data is available for the green roof?
The sources explain intended functions—runoff reduction, heat-island mitigation, and improved views—but provide no measured runoff volume, temperature reduction, energy savings, or maintenance results. Current performance would require facility records or a new assessment.
