A little about each project:

The Detroit Observatory is the second-oldest extant building on The University of Michigan’s campus and the University’s first dedicated scientific research laboratory. While the original 1854 structure was given much care and attention in a 1999 restoration, it’s dramatic top-of-the-hill siting, challenging accessibility, and lack of amenities continued to present issues for utilizing this historic gem to meet the University’s needs. With only about 350 visitors per year, the Observatory remained significantly underutilized.

Working with the university, HED and HopkinsBurns shaped the addition to provide a memorable, easily accessed event experience where students, faculty, and the public engage with the history and heritage of the observatory and university in a meaningful way.

The Ruthven Building project came to life after the University identified that their was suffering from a lack of large-format instructional spaces on the central campus, limiting its ability to support emerging pedagogy and active learning instructional styles. Conceived as a “learning loft,” the addition features active learning classrooms in a variety of learning configurations, including a 550-seat auditorium, a 200-seat classroom in the round, and other flexible high tech team-based learning classrooms.