Abstract

Michigan State University and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources established a partnership for sustainable park planning in October 2011. The purpose of the partnership was to enable students in the design fields to work on real-world projects and provide practical solutions. One of the notable projects was to assess old historic buildings in one state park and propose renovation plan to improve its indoor environmental quality and energy efficiency. The buildings in the park functioned as the traveler’s destination in the 1920s and still preserve original interior and exterior features.

The team of undergraduates and faculty in interior design visited the park and assessed the interior and exterior conditions of two of its buildings. They used an assessment tool which was designed on a basis of the elements in the indoor environmental quality category (IEQ) of the US Green Building Council’s LEED. Results revealed that the indoor environmental conditions of the buildings should be improved. The energy efficiency of the buildings was low. Based on this assessment, this study offered practical suggestions for improving the building’s indoor environmental quality. This study also proposed an assessment tool for the historic buildings in the state parks in Michigan to assess current indoor environmental quality of those buildings.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.