Numerous Construction Projects Scheduled for University of Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The University of Michigan has plans to spend millions of dollars for several construction and renovation projects in the coming years that include modernizing facilities to allow for the most advanced educational methods and comforts for students, staff and faculty.

Updates to the university include the A. Alfred Taubman Health Sciences Library, serving medical students; renovations to the South Quadrangle student dormitories; and a new softball center.

A. Alfred Taubman Health Sciences Library

The medical students of the University of Michigan will enjoy a $55 million revamp to the health sciences library, bringing smaller group learning spaces and much needed simulation rooms for students to have real-time medical practice.

“Beforehand we only had the ability to speak theoretically about it,” said Brad Densen, administrative director for the Office of Medical Student Education. “Now, with our simulation center, we have context.” The new simulation area included in the 137,000-square-foot building will promote a crucial form of interprofessional education, Densen said, which permits several students of various career paths to collaborate and find the best conclusion in any given medical circumstance.

“Of all the spaces in which we can identify opportunities for interprofessional education, simulation seems to be one that the health sciences can rally around. It’s a great opportunity to see how students can interact as teams and get a group of medical students, nursing students, and pharmacists together to see how they treat a patient,” Densen said. “It allows for more team dynamic work which is essentially where we think the health care system is going.”

Jane Blumenthal, director of the Taubman Health Sciences Library and associate librarian at the University of Michigan Library, said with the updated facilities students will be able to take advantage of newer forms of medical education that will remain relevant as it advances.

“The simulation suites are only going to grow in importance in the future,” she said. “There is going to be more emphasis on interpersonal skills and really the only way you evaluate those is to see people in action.”

The ability to provide immediate feedback to students in simulation will also be much more effective, Blumenthal said.

Renovations, designed by Bloomfield, Mich.-based TMP Architecture Inc. and Ballinger of Philadelphia, are set for completion in August 2015.

The small group study areas in the library also promote collaboration, Densen said. Equipped with flat panels to watch lectures, small group study spaces were sparse in the older facility.

“One of the nice attributes of having flat panels in every small group room is that if students want to watch a lecture they are no longer tied to a computer lab or watching on their laptop; they can expand that image on one of the flat panels if they want to work in a group,” Densen said.

The library made room for renovations by freeing nearly two floors that were once occupied by rarely used print materials, Blumenthal said.

“We really had lots of space we didn’t need for processing physical materials and not enough space for all the work we do with electronic material,” she said.

The building, constructed in the 1980s, was designed to suit the time’s large emphasis on printed materials and instruction. With most materials now found online or electronically, the former storage space will now be repurposed to concentrate on instructional space rather than unused print text.

The materials that will be moved are entirely print-based, said Blumenthal, adding that all journals and books published before 2008 would be removed from the building unless they are heavily used.

South Quad Dormitories

As part of an eight-year $500 million initiative to enhance student residential life, the University of Michigan’s $60 million project to renovate the South Quadrangle will be completed in the summer of 2014. SmithGroupJJR, based in Detroit, is the architect on the project while Clark Construction, also in Detroit, will serve as the general contractor.

Construction, to begin in May, will include renovations to the 1,180-bed dormitory’s dining center, improvements to student bathrooms, provide additional student lounges, study spaces and music practice rooms, as well as add two laundry rooms to the building.

The addition will also include the new 950-seat dining hub, which will provide 10 unique microrestaurant stations with detailed nutritional content for each prepared dish.
“An army marches on its stomach; students learn when their brains are fed,” said Linda Newman, director of university housing.

Rather than food being prepared in the back of the kitchen and brought out in large vats, much of the cooking will occur in front of students to demonstrate healthy choices and proper food preparation, Newman said.

“Things we do help students learn how to make decisions about food and to eat healthy, if they choose,” Newman said.

Also, the addition and renovation of bathrooms will affect student life tremendously, Newman added.

“In all my years of working in residence halls I have heard the single most disliked thing is the hall bathroom,” she said. “One thing we worked very hard on here is the sense of privacy in the hallway bathrooms.”

Instead of the typical 60 students to one bathroom ratio, the South Quad is trying to bring that number down to about 35 students to one hallway bathroom.

Donald R. Shepherd Softball Center

The new $4 million Donald Shepherd Softball Center will provide a softball facility adjacent to Alumni Field and includes coaches’ offices, a new locker room, training rooms, team meeting spaces and a multipurpose room for warm-ups and stretches. The design was completed by Grand Rapids-based Integrated Architecture.

“It’s going to create a kind of one-stop shop for our student athletes so they don’t have to go to one part of campus to meet with a coach then go to the locker room and then go to practice,” said Dave Brandon, athletic director at the University of Michigan.

Construction on the 10,000-square-foot facility is scheduled to begin in early June.

“It kind of puts everything ‘softball’ into one place, which we like,” Brandon said. “It make more efficient use of time for our student athletes.”