Five years after scrapping its original proposal for improvements to the Art and Architecture Building, University of Michigan is planning to add a $28 million addition to the 40-year-old structure.



The schematic designs for a $13 million, 16,300-square-feet addition that was originally approved in 2007, but scrapped two years later. It's unclear of the re-imagined addition will look similar.

The building, located on U-M's North Campus, houses the A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design.

The addition will be used primarily by the architecture school. U-M plans to add new classrooms, studios and offices to the building, as well as renovating existing studios.

"This project will significantly improve the quantity and quality of the college's space," U-M Chief Financial Officer Tim Slottow wrote in a memo to regents.

The eight-member Board of Regents is expected to approve the project during a 3 p.m. March 20 meeting at the Michigan Union.

Designs for a $13 million, 16,300-square-feet addition were originally approved in 2007, but scrapped two years later. At the time, officials blamed a tough economic climate and limited financial resources.

"We are, because of the economic circumstances, scrutinizing every expenditure," former U-M Provost Phil Hanlon, then vice provost, told The Ann Arbor News in 2009. "This was one that was certainly valuable, solves some important problems for the (architecture college) but we wanted to look again whether there were other ways we could solve them in a more cost-effective way."

Now U-M has more than doubled the project budget and drummed up $12.5 million from a donor.

The architecture school's namesake, Alfred Taubman, donated $12.5 million toward the addition, which will be named after him.

He donated $30 million to the architecture school in 1998. His donations have totaled more than $155 million and went toward supporting medial research and U-M's art museum, in addition to the architecture school.

U-M has tapped the architecture firm Integrated Design Solutions in conduction with the firm Preston Scott Cohen to design the project.

Kellie Woodhouse covers higher education for the Ann Arbor News. Reach her at kelliewoodhouse@mlive.com or 734-255-5303 and follow her on twitter.