Frieze Building Blog

North Quad to get new look
U-M hires another architectural firm to redesign exterior
Monday, July 31, 2006
BY DAVE GERSHMAN

News Staff Reporter

The University of Michigan has hired a second architectural company to redesign the exterior appearance of North Quadrangle, a combined residence hall and academic complex to be built on the site of the soon-to-be-demolished Frieze Building.

With the hiring of Robert A.M. Stern Architects to act as lead designer, U-M will delay the opening of the complex by a year to fall 2010. The price tag is expected to rise beyond the already approved $137 million budget. The new design should be ready in the fall.

Expect a big change in the design's "look and feel,'' said U-M President Mary Sue Coleman. Robert A.M. Stern Architects has designed another building under construction on campus, which Coleman praised for its "collegiate'' feel.

Meanwhile, the demolition of the Frieze Building, originally scheduled for this summer, has been postponed to fall. Some university units are still in the building, but most have already moved.

University leaders pulled the plug on the original schematic design for a 350,000-square-foot complex in March just before it was to be publicly reviewed by the Board of Regents.

Robert A.M. Stern Architects will work with the original architects in the firm of Einhorn, Yaffee, Prescott, which is being retained, and make enough changes to give top university officials exactly what they want.

Coleman said she's looking for a certain "wow'' factor. North Quad, she said, should look as if it's a significant new gateway to campus.

Coleman said she and members of the Board of Regents had concerns with the original design, and she wanted to take the time to do the project right.

Among the concerns, Coleman acknowledged, was that the State Street facade didn't look as inviting or welcoming as it could. In the new design, the State Street entrance also could become more prominent, and North Quad could relate more to other existing campus buildings, she said.

One reason to hire Robert A.M. Stern Architects, Coleman said, is that the firm designed the new Joan and Sanford Weill Hall for the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. Weill Hall is being built at the corner of State and Hill streets.

"Weill Hall is turning out to be spectacular and feels so collegiate,'' she said.

North Quad will be constructed on a city block bordered by Huron Avenue on the north, State Street on the west and Washington Street on the south.

It will take about the same footprint as the Frieze Building, the former Ann Arbor High School, which U-M bought in 1956. U-M has pledged to save the Carnegie Library which is attached to the Frieze Building and incorporate it into the North Quad complex.

Robert A.M. Stern Architects has worked with Einhorn, Yaffee, Prescott in the past, notably on Southwest Quadrangle, a residence hall project for Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Coleman said she is pleased with Einhorn, Yaffee Prescott's work on the interior dynamics of North Quad, which were tricky because of the combination of the residence hall with academic units, creating a new living, learning environment.

"What they're able to do is tap into all that knowledge, understanding and experience with users that EYP reached over the last year,'' said Philip Hanlon, associate provost for academic and budgetary affairs. "So in particular, even though the overall design of the building might be quite different, the internal spaces, the actual internal elements will be the same, and the important adjacencies of spaces will be the same.''

The question handed the architects is how to make North Quad a gateway that's appropriate for U-M and the Ann Arbor community, said Henry Baier, U-M's associate vice president for facilities and operations. Robert A.M. Stern Architects, Baier said, is familiar with the campus and community.

"It's not that we gave them specific instructions to duplicate something else on campus, but to consider the impact of other buildings in that area of campus,'' Baier said, "and to consider, as they go through and lead the design, influences of the architecture on campus.''

Community members and graduates of the former Ann Arbor high school at the Frieze Building have fought unsuccessfully to save the building. Some of them see the hiring of the new architects as an opportunity to fix elements of the design they didn't like.

Carol Smith of Ann Arbor, a member of Citizens for Responsible Campus Development, said she hopes the dimensions of North Quad are changed. The original design showed the building extending to the sidewalk on State Street.

"I think it would just wreck the streetscape,'' said Smith, who also hopes that the redesign incorporates elements of the Frieze Building into the new complex.

Christine Crockett of Ann Arbor, another group member, agreed and said she's hopeful that Robert A.M. Stern Architects knows the campus' historical context in a way that previous architects hired by the university have not.

"The architecture of the University of Michigan unfortunately has been quite schizophrenic over the years, and it's heartening to hear that there's now growing sensitivity on the part of the university to do something that's more in keeping of the traditional feel of this wonderful historical area,'' she said.

The Theatre and Drama Department will move out of the Frieze Building later this summer or fall to the Walgreen Drama Center that's being built on North Campus.

Among those units already moved out of the Frieze Building: Asian Languages and Cultures, the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies and Near-Eastern Studies are across the street in the brand-new, $18 million building at the corner of Thayer and Washington streets.

Two other units that were moved out of the Frieze Building will have space in North Quad - the Department of Screen Arts and Cultures, which is now in three locations around campus, and Communication Studies, which is located in leased space in University Towers.