Macalester College
Institute for Global Citizenship

Client Macalester College, Institute for Global Citizenship

Location St. Paul, MN

The new environmentally sustainable Macalester College Institute for Global Citizenship (IGC) building would be Macalester’s first building to receive LEED Platinum certification. The designation would make the IGC’s new home one of the first Platinum buildings on a college campus in Minnesota and one of only a handful of Platinum buildings on a college or university campus in the United States.

The interior and exterior signage designed by Visual Communications uses innovative materials like Ecostone, which utilizes recycled and regional materials. Ecostone is made from fibrous materials, including newsprint, cardboard, magazines, and telephone books – even worn-out currency retired by the government. Material is broken down, turned into pulp, made into a slurry (using hydrogen bonding that eliminates the need for formaldehyde or toxic glues), and then pressed into sheets.

Signs fabricated and installed by Archetype Signmakers.