As part of its commitment to providing world-class programming to its diverse student body, the College of Aviation undertook a $20M expansion and renovation of its existing classroom building to create the Aviation Education Center. WMU partnered with Integrated Architecture and Beckering Construction to design and construct the project, which was completed in March of 2021. The project looked not only to address growing student enrollment, but to promote continued excellence for this world-renowned institution with upgraded spaces, advanced technology and new, state-of-the-art equipment.
The Aviation Education Center is part of a larger complex of buildings that make up the University’s College of Aviation, home to the largest flight school in the Midwest. Located at the W.K. Kellogg Airport in Battle Creek, Michigan, the College is situated on the east side of the Battle Creek Executive Airport, and occupies over 135,000 square feet on 20 acres of the field.
The renovated and dramatically expanded building features classrooms, flight planning and briefing rooms, a paint lab (one of the only collegiate-level paint labs in the country), the Aviation Advising Department and faculty offices, as well as a student lounge, café and spirit shop. One of the signature spaces is the Flight Simulator Lab, which houses a 737-Max flight training device, three Cirrus SR-20 Advanced Flight Training Devices and a Redbird full motion multi-engine simulator.
As a whole, the facility doubles the number of students that it can accommodate, across a wide range of specialties, and provides a backdrop for the College to live their core values to the fullest.
