New Central Campus cassroom building
Ann Arbor, MI – Harley Ellis Devereaux (HED), architect of record, and The S/L/A/M Collaborative, design architect, recently unveiled the design of the new Central Campus Classroom Building and adjacent renovation to the 135,000sf historic Alexander G. Ruthven Building at the University of Michigan.
The project is scheduled for construction completion in the fall of 2021 and will host student classes beginning in January 2022. The new building will seek LEED Silver certification, an industry standard for green building
The new 100,000sf classroom building helps to redefine the east edge of the campus, creating a new gateway experience for the nearly 10,000 students expected to utilize the facility each day.
Conceived as a learning loft, the building features expansive floor-to-floor heights to accommodate new signature classrooms for the state’s flagship university.
The new classrooms will include a variety of learning configurations, including a 550-seat auditorium, a 200-seat classroom in the round, and other active learning classroom designs.
These new classrooms will include 1,400 student seats in a variety of learning configurations, including a 550-seat auditorium, a 200-seat classroom in the round, and other active learning classroom designs.
Composed of limestone, granite, and terra cotta, the classroom building features a cadence of columns and glazed openings that are powerful in scale, yet referential to compositions found in the adjacent Ruthven Building. The existing Ruthven Building will also undergo renovations and include administration and computational research space.
“The building is designed to be purposeful while engaging the campus fabric as a gateway to the university,” said Neil Martin, SLAM’s design principal.
—
“The design team has worked closely with the university to design not only a building, but a series of interactive classrooms that illustrate U-M’s commitment to continue to be a world-class institution,” said Martin.
