North Quad highlights central campus planning update

The programming for the North Quad Residential and Academic Complex has been completed and design is underway, University officials told members of the Board of Regents Nov. 17.

An image representing the North Quad Academic Complex gives some perspective on the scope of the project. During a presentation on Central Campus planning to the Board of Regents Nov. 17 University Planner Sue Gott said the residence hall will include approximately 460 beds and include academic spaces for the School of Information, Screen Arts and Culture, Communication Studies, the Language Resource Center and the Sweetland Writing Center. The actual architectural designs still are being developed, so the drawing represents in a general way the groupings of the various parts of the building, not an actual plan. (Photo courtesy Plant Extension)

Although details of how the building will look currently are being developed, the regents were shown an image of the groupings of occupants for the complex during a presentation about Central Campus planning by Associate Provost Phil Hanlon and University Planner Sue Gott.

"As the centerpiece of the RLI (Residential Life Initiatives), North Quad will improve student life through a state-of-the-art residential hall that's linked with classrooms, shared living and learning spaces and dining," Gott said. She explained that the proposed building will be organized to incorporate the Carnegie Library, focus the academic areas along the western State Street corridor, provide approximately 460 beds in two wings on the north and south that "hug" the green space adjacent to Rackham Auditorium, and foster collaboration in the shared central spaces.

The academic units slated to move into North Quad include the School of Information, Screen Arts and Culture, Communication Studies, the Language Resource Center and the Sweetland Writing Center. During the programming stage of a capital project, planning principles are developed, user needs are identified and space requirements are explored in order to guide concept prioritization to bring the project within budget.

The update on the North Quad planning activities was one of many projects Gott highlighted in a visual trip around the center of the Ann Arbor campus.

She noted three planning concepts currently under development include a new biology building, possibly located between the Museum of Natural History and the Life Sciences Building; a new parking structure on Division Street adjacent to the Thompson Street parking structure; and the renovation and expansion of the Towsley Center for Children.

Hanlon opened the presentation by explaining that the Central Campus planning update evolved from interviews with the deans and directors of each unit.

"Three key academic themes—innovation, collaboration and excellence—drive Central Campus planning," Hanlon said. "To stay at the forefront, the University must continually find better ways to do our teaching and research, and our facilities must support these new ways of doing our core business."

Hanlon provided a number of examples of innovative teaching techniques already being used at U-M, including the Chemistry Department's studio labs, in which students move back and forth between lab activities and technology-enabled seminar style discussions of experimental results as they emerge. Students perform experiments at lab benches, enter results in a nearby computer, then move to a part of the room to computationally analyze results. The furniture and design of rooms are important to adopting such new modes of learning, Hanlon said.

Hanlon and Gott both emphasized that collaboration has and will continue to be a theme of Central Campus development.

Gott said over time the central campus has evolved along thematic corridors. These include a science corridor linking physics and geology through to the new Life Sciences complex as well as the health sciences from pharmacy and public health to the Medical School and University Hospital. Corridors for social sciences, performing arts, and arts and humanities complete the central campus design.

"This has been a fantastic, integrated planning process derived from our University mission," Gott said, "influenced by academic priorities, residence and student life needs, the plans of our Health System, and focused through our physical planning principles and facility condition requirements.

"Central Campus today is an elaborate tapestry, woven over time, transformed by magnificent spaces for learning, research, gathering, recreating, performing, living and studying."