South Dakota State University

Student Union Bookstore Renovations | Brookings, SD

West Plains Engineering was part of a team that provided an 8,680 square foot renovation to the SDSU Bookstore, located in the Student Union.

The Bookstore has a warm, inviting feel which can be seen from the “main street” of the Student Union. The South wall of the store was opened up to allow daylight and views from inside the store, as well as to allow connection to passers-by outside. Glazing on the entrance wall gave the space and merchandise much-needed visibility and openness.

The design of the Bookstore has been featured in retail design publications. The design for the Apple Store within has also been featured in Apple marketing materials. The Apple Store has been an extremely successful addition to the Bookstore and Student Union.

Electrically the project consisted of new industrial pendant lighting throughout the space and decorative pendants at the islands. The merchandise was highlighted using downlight cans and linear lights. Lighting was provided in the display cases at the cash registers. Emergency egress lighting was installed to illuminate the space during an outage. Existing panelboards were utilized to feed power to feed the technology pods, point of sale (POS), vending and convenience receptacles. The existing fire alarm system was maintained in the space to meet code requirements. The security system included cameras and keypad at the main doors. Existing cable tray was used for cable management from the outlet to the existing data rack.

The mechanical portion of the project consisted of heating and cooling supplied by an air handling unit with VAV boxes with hot water reheat. There was no above floor or below floor plumbing and there were no bathrooms in the space.