A regenerative college campus from the ground up

The adage "do more with less" is anathema in the corporate world. It’s an approach to governance that often leads to stress, burnout, and compromised results. However, as an approach to campus planning and energy efficiency, it can produce something inspired and beneficial. Des Moines University has successfully done more with less.

In 2019, Des Moines University (DMU) announced its decision to upgrade its campus. Rather than refurbish its existing facilities, the small, private health sciences school purchased an 88-acre plot in west Des Moines, opting to relocate its entire operation and create a brand-new campus from the ground up. DMU’s leadership made clear that this decision was informed by their desire to operate within a regenerative campus that prioritized resource conservation, energy efficiency, and responsible stewardship. More so, this effort is complemented by an expansion of the institution’s student body all while reducing the school’s built footprint by more than 160,000 square feet. The new campus was completed in 2023; enrollment soon went from 1,600 to 2,000 students. 

Still, with such an ambitious endeavor grounded in principles of efficiency, it’s worth pondering why the school didn’t pursue a renewal of its existing campus. After all, to invoke another adage (and one increasingly popular in architecture circles): the most sustainable building is the one that already exists. But when it came to DMU, this wasn’t necessarily the case.

Looking to the future

The campus of the future can be difficult to realize when one is working with aging infrastructure. And according to the team at RDG Planning & Design, a firm with seven offices around the country that led the planning and design of the West Des Moines campus, DMU’s existing 548,000 square feet of built space was the perfect storm of too big, too cumbersome, and too disorganized. 

“It didn’t have the right types of environments,” says Michael Houston, national studio leader for RDG’s College & University practice. He describes early strategy meetings with DMU’s leadership that focused on energy costs and deferred maintenance, as well as the outcomes of students’ work. Across the board, the numbers left much to be desired. “The campus wasn't performing at the levels relative to energy that made it useful for them to stay. And the environments weren't leading them to high-performing results among their students. This meant that a move was the likely scenario.”

While retrofitting existing buildings could have yielded some version of what DMU envisioned for its campus of the future, this would have provided results in piecemeal rather a cohesive solution. This approach also would have been disruptive for students and unsustainable over the long term. Further, the layout and configuration of existing facilities were not conducive to fostering a “skills-based, experiential learning” environment, Houston says. The buildings, nine in total, were too far apart, learning spaces were disjointed and inflexible, and there was little recourse for making all this operate on an interconnected framework that would reduce energy demand and stormwater runoff. According to Houston, “the choice to relocate was the best strategy for the university to achieve the performance metrics of the future.”

To make good on their client’s investment, RDG sought to produce a “multi-generational campus” that could adapt with the times. This vision not only extends to the learning spaces themselves, which now include hybrid classroom/lab spaces and a centralized library with a modest 500-square-foot learning commons (DMU’s research library is now largely digitized), but to the campus layout as well. 

DMU’s facilities are now distributed among four new buildings, which are arranged along tight knit, intersecting axes, resembling a lowercase "y". The Edge of Advancement Building houses administration offices, learning studios, IT and student support services, and DMU’s distributed library; the Innovation Building houses labs and learning studios for simulation, research, and collaborative work, as well as the café; the Campus Support Building, which RDG senior partner Benjamin Kroll, AIA, calls the “heart and lungs” of the campus, houses DMU’s central plant and other critical infrastructure; and finally, branching off slightly from this trio, is the Health and Wellbeing Building, which houses recreation facilities and clinic rooms, and is situated as the campus gateway—a conduit between on-site surface parking and DMU’s educational spaces.

The choice to configure the buildings in this manner was “about creating a density with the architecture, which allowed for a multitude of efficiencies when moving between buildings,” Kroll says. “You can walk through the entire campus and constantly know where you are in relationship to other buildings … transparency and connection allowed for that holistic approach to the campus.” Kroll also points out that students now refer to DMU as “the building.” “They’re describing it as one entity. That truly speaks to the interconnectedness of the campus pathways.”

Reducing consumption and enhancing efficiencies 

This dense and linear approach to campus planning also speaks to DMU’s “holistic approach to sustainability,” according to Kroll. The campus is slated to become the largest combined LEED-and WELL-certified project of its kind. (LEED Silver certification has been obtained for all four buildings; WELL Gold certification will follow.) And yet, even this distinction feels inadequate when considering the layers and interconnections of the campus’ larger energy and conservation plan.

Situated below the surface parking area is a vast geo-exchange system comprising 700 wells for heating and cooling campus buildings, while also returning heat to the water table in renewable cycles. This has yielded a 56% reduction in energy use intensity (EUI) compared to baseline. And in a fitting parallel with DMU’s acreage, campus buildings derive 88% of their energy needs from renewable wind and solar sources across Iowa. Combined with energy efficient lighting, occupancy sensors, and space efficiencies that come with downsizing from nine disparate buildings to four interconnected ones, RDG’s figures indicate a 67% reduction in operational carbon emissions. 

According to Kelly Stumpf, a principal consultant with engineering firm NV5, integrating vast mechanical, electrical, security, and other systems was key to DMU’s newfound efficiencies. And being an institution of higher learning, it made perfect sense to share that data with the very people using the campus every day. “All these components are now networked … you can look at efficiencies and get data, and then we can share that on the digital signage that we put around campus," she said. "People can understand how the buildings perform.” 

DMU’s embodied carbon footprint was likewise kept to a minimum. All masonry and stone used for the buildings was sourced within 22 miles of the campus, ensuring that regional economies benefitted from the new campus. According to Kroll, this kind of local engagement also helps “develop relationships” and fosters greater equity by “allowing the local community and businesses to ingrain [themselves] within the campus.”

For all the consideration given to reducing the carbon impacts of the new buildings, it’s worth noting that across DMU’s 88 acres, very little of the land is occupied by conditioned space. In many ways, the regenerative landscape and conservation measures in place are what lend this new DMU its soul.

On the cutting edge of advancement

Des Moines University sits along the southernmost edge of the Des Moines Lobe, the portion of northern Iowa last touched by advancing glaciers more than 10,000 years ago. This geologic point is what’s colloquially known as the Edge of Advancement. 

“We began with the question of, ‘how do we lightly touch 88 acres?’” Houston recalls. In his telling, that millennia-old advancing glacier became “the organizational tool” for the campus plan, from the tight cluster of buildings situated on the edge of the glacial till to the restorative landscaping that ensured healthy, biodiverse ecosystems would become part of DMU’s legacy. 

The first order of business was understanding the ecological and hydrological qualities that make this land unique, and how nearly 400,000 square feet of new construction could tread lightly upon it. The RDG team strategically placed bioswales, retention ponds, adjacent wetlands, and a riparian restoration zone along the edges. Inspired by native prairie ecosystems, DMU’s new campus features an abundance of native trees, low-maintenance turf, and other vegetation all designed to attract pollinators, conserve resources, and reduce stormwater runoff and the risk of downstream erosion. 

This stormwater management program also benefits from a low-impact approach. By leveraging the land’s native ecological assets and retention capacity, precipitation is more efficiently conveyed, precluding the need for storm pipes and earth fill. The co-benefits from this include improved water quality as well as sizable reductions in total suspended solids (94%), total phosphorus (78%), and total nitrogen (40%). All told, RDG claims these integrated stormwater solutions have reduced potable water use by 91.2% and runoff by 8 million gallons annually. 

Both within and beyond DMU’s buildings, the campus comprises intersecting pathways that are fluid and navigable. It is also what RDG’s designers call “future ready,” which is of particular concern as institutions of higher learning prepare to integrate new technologies and modes of learning. While DMU’s buildings are flexible and future-ready, the campus itself is a living embrace of the land that makes it. As for the old campus, the university is also doing the work of ensuring it will enjoy a fruitful second life. “It's not a situation where those existing buildings are being demolished. They're being repurposed in other ways,” Kroll says. This includes ongoing efforts to retrofit a 90,000-square-foot facility into a medical simulation lab that will used by other local schools. 

Kroll says the story this new campus tells is informed by AIA’s Framework for Design Excellence. Among the principles that are harnessed throughout, including energy, water, ecosystems, discovery, resources, and others, possibly chief among them is designing for well-being.

Abiding the framework

“Good design supports health and well-being for all people,” states the AIA Framework’s Design for Well-Being principle, stipulating an all-inclusive approach that prioritizes one’s physical, mental, and emotional wellness. And a key part of achieving this mandate is connecting people to nature and a sense of place.

The decision to relocate the campus wholesale rather than make do with the school’s existing land was very much informed by the land itself. This new lot offered tremendous opportunity to both leverage and restore the site’s ecological assets. While green spaces, resilient landscapes, and native vegetation thrive, campus users are likewise encouraged to occasionally remove themselves from the lab or classroom and engage with these features up close. 

The new campus boasts a 2.5-mile walking trail that guides pedestrians through restored savanna and upland oak landscapes and an existing black locust grove, as well as overlooks that afford views of surrounding farmland and the Raccoon River valley. The path is designed to be responsive to the land’s subtle shifts in elevation, owing to the receding Des Moines Lobe that left hills of debris in its path. According to Houston, the university was “very thoughtful” in wanting to make the land’s performance integral to its new campus. “The land is part of its story.”

Justin R. Wolf is a freelance writer covering architecture and design. He lives in Maine.