Past Projects

lobby

The Crossroads & Tower: On October 26, 2006, University of Michigan School of Public Health Dean Kenneth Warner officially declared the school's new Crossroads and Research Tower open to the public. The new UM SPH facility houses 8,000 square feet of classroom space, 17 conference rooms, and 133 laboratory benches. It features several common spaces designed to facilitate collaboration in interdisciplinary centers and with the school's wide array of community and academic partners.

The seven-story, 125,000 square-foot facility integrates with two major existing SPH buildings, which are finishing major renovation. Together they create a self-contained complex that houses the schools varied research, teaching, and service programs, as well as the public health library.

Both a literal and metaphorical crossroads, UM SPH stands just a short campus walk from UM's schools of medicine, business, public policy, law, nursing, natural resources, and social work.

The innovative design and state-of-the-art technology of the new and renovated SPH facilities better enable faculty and students to address today’s top public health priorities, including new genetic technologies, the financing of health care, the globalization of health, public health preparedness and the prevention and treatment of infectious disease.

Read the remarks of Centerbrook architect Jeff Riley from the opening ceremony, explaining design elements and concepts behind the SPH Crossroads and Tower design.

View the opening reception invitation (PDF)
Campuswide view from the new Research Tower.
Spring 2006 Findings magazine article
$3.7 million NIH grant to support SPH building project.
September 3, 2004 UM News Service release
UM Architecture, Engineering, and Construction project site for SPH.
Road closures & maps.
Parking options.
Video and slide show from SPH I and bridge demolition.

Ground was broken October 23, 2003, at the UM School of Public Health. A literal as well as metaphorical "crossroads," the new facility will allow for greater collaboration among departments, research centers, faculty, students, and communities of all kinds, and will enable students across departments to exchange ideas with each other and with colleagues throughout the world. Shared teaching spaces will be more centralized, and opportunities for research will multiply.

SPH Groundbreaking Ceremony At the groundbreaking, from left: Chasity Wellnitz and Rebecca Danhof, co-chairs of the Public Health Student Association; Noreen Clark, SPH dean; Mary Sue Coleman, UM president; Paul N. Courant, UM provost; Kimberlydawn Wisdom, surgeon general of the state of Michigan and an SPH alumna; and Martin Philbert, senior associate dean for research-designate at SPH. (Photo by Paul Jaronski, UM Photo Service)

"From the beginning, we have conceived the school's new building complex as a crossroads of intellectual activity, of research and teaching, of academe and community," said Noreen M. Clark, Marshall Becker Professor of Public Health and SPH dean during the building's planning and groundbreaking. "This concept reflects the school's longstanding tradition of interdisciplinarity and heralds our future direction. As disciplines begin to share perspectives, they will change. Contributing old disciplines will grow stronger, and new disciplines will evolve. The Crossroads is designed to foster these ends at their optimum."

Watch SPH's demolition and construction video
This three-and-a-half time-elapsed movie utilizes sampling images from the webcam situated on the roof of SPH II throughout the nearly three years of preparation for and construction of the new SPH Crossroads & Tower.

Open for Business
Washington Hts. Street is now open, as is much of the long-awaited new Crossroads and Tower facility. Moves into the new building have progressed rapidly. You may gain access to the appropriate floor by using the stairs and/or elevators in SPH II and walking across into the Crossroads and Tower.

view from inside the tower Construction Activity
Spring 2006
The view is taking shape inside and out. With 2,300 linear feet of windows, the Tower promises many breathtaking views. See and learn more.

Winter/Spring 2006
Construction managers report that dozens of interior systems are now being installed throughout the new building. The lobby is pictured here.

November 2005
the new tower Drywall is being installed; painting of walls, installation of ceiling lights, floors, and doors follow. By midwinter, the building will be enclosed and the majority of the construction work will move to the interior. Simultaneously, activation planning is in full swing, addressing issues such as signage, phones, relocation, and furniture.

June 2005
The pace has quickened for summer 2005, construction photo with three times the number of employees on site. Steel framing, glass installation, and bricking of the tower continue. By fall, the research tower will be substantially closed, and the bulk of the work will move to the inside of the building.

January 2005
Steel erection of the seven-story construction photo tower is finished and the steel crew has been demobilized. Special thanks goes out to the ironworkers who worked every day and weekends to get the structure completed speedily (the launching of flags and a tree on the highest beam was their traditional tribute to a project safely completed).