Facilities Highlights
Dow Center FlexLab
The Dow Center FlexLab, KCAD’s state-of-the-art digital fabrication facility, spans two floors and puts a wealth of innovative technology at your fingertips, including 3D printers and scanners, laser and vinyl-cutting machines, wide-format printers, and more.
LOCATION:
Woodbridge N. Ferris Building - 1st Floor
Baker Furniture Collection
The Baker Furniture Collection provides unparalleled and up-close-and-personal access to 1,500 square feet of period furniture and decorative arts from around the world–ancient, modern, and everything in between. A perfect source of inspiration for aspiring designers.
LOCATION:
17 Fountain St. NW building - 5th Floor, Room 506
Metals and Jewelry Studios
Our expansive metals and jewelry studios feature wax injectors, vacuum and induction casting systems, torches and flexshafts, a complete enameling setup, pneumatic assisted engraving toolsets, a collection of silversmithing stakes and hammers, a rolling mill, shears, a brake, a drawbench, a fume hood, equipment for electroforming and acid etching, as well as laser welders and a vast collection of small, specialized tools.
LOCATION:
17 Fountain St. NW building - 2nd Floor, Room 202A
KCAD Library
An academic library uniquely focused on serving artists and designers, the KCAD Library provide a curated diverse body of scholarly resources across numerous fields of design and fine art, including a print collection of over 28,000 volumes. KCAD students, faculty and staff also benefit from shared access to the numerous online databases, eBooks, reference and streaming video resources maintained by Ferris State University.
LOCATION:
17 Fountain St. NW building - 2nd Floor, Room 203A
Photography Darkrooms
KCAD offers students access to two separate fully equipped darkrooms—one for processing black and white film/prints and another for processing color film/prints. Both darkrooms feature 15 enlargers with negative carriers and filters.
LOCATION:
17 Fountain St. NW building - 3rd Floor, Room 306
Printmaking Studio
Our well-appointed communal Printmaking Studio supports a comprehensive approach to art making. You’ll be able to use tools include etching presses, lithography presses, screenprinting presses and equipment, papermaking equipment, and more.
LOCATION:
17 Fountain St. NW building - 3rd Floor, Room 302
Interior Design Resource Room
In this room, you can peruse more than 1,500 swatches, reference catalogues, manufacturer’s catalogues, and decorative hardware catalogues/samples. You'll also have access to a large cutting surface and other work surface areas.
LOCATION:
17 Fountain St. NW building - 5th Floor, Room 529
Audio Recording Studio
This high-end sound and special effects room provides excellent sound quality for creating and capturing audio. Produce high-end digital recordings using a sound booth, professional quality preamps, interfaces, MIDI keyboards, and microphones, and ProTools digital audio workstation software.
LOCATION:
17 Fountain St. NW building - 7th Floor, Room 706
Clay Studio
The expansive clay studio features a main room with 16 throwing wheels, a slab roller, slip casting equipment, and extruders; a clay mixing room for clay and glaze formulations; a spray booth for applying glaze finishes, and a large kiln room with four electric kilns and one walk-in kiln.
LOCATION:
Woodbridge N. Ferris Building, Lower Level, Room 025
Fashion Studies Work Room
This well-equipped communal workspace has everything students need to bring their original garment designs to life, including sewing machines, fashion forms, cutting tools, and spacious high-top work tables.
LOCATION:
Woodbridge N. Ferris Building, 3rd Floor, Room 313
Metal Sculpture Studio
This sprawling studio space is equipped with MIG and TIG welding equipment, a hydraulic shear, a hydraulic slip roller, a hydraulic iron worker, a metal band saw, a metal disc sander, a large high-speed metal lathe, a pneumatic planishing hammer, and more.
LOCATION:
Woodbridge N. Ferris Building, 1st Floor, Room 127
Graduate Studios
Use exclusively by graduate-level students, these studio spaces feature large work areas with mobile dividing walls, high ceilings, bountiful natural light, and a fully-ventilated spray booth.
LOCATION:
17 Fountain St. NW building, 6th Floor, Rooms 604, 606, and 607
Papermaking Lab
In tandem with the Printmaking Lab, this space enables students to take full creative control of their printmaking projects by creating their own handmade paper from scratch. Features a beater for making pulp, a large sink for casting molds, and presses for flattening.
LOCATION:
17 Fountain St. NW building, Lower Level
The Spark
The Spark is an energetic retail space that exists as a resource to KCAD students, alumni, and the Grand Rapids community. It offers a variety of locally producted goods for sale—including art prints, apparel, jewelry, homewares, and more—as well as KCAD merch, coffee, soft drinks, and snacks.
LOCATION:
17 Fountain St. NW building, 1st Floor, Room 105
FlexGallery
FlexGallery is a malleable gallery space with an open floor plan that's equipped to showcase a wide variety of fine art and design programming, from exhibitions of student and alumni work to external collaborations to site-specific installations and performances.
LOCATION:
Woodbridge N. Ferris Building, 1st Floor
