DEARBORN, Mich. - The University's proposed Life Science Institute became two steps closer to reality when the Board of Regents approved initial proposals for the project in meetings last week.
Architects from the Philadelphia-based firm of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates presented initial designs for the LSI to the regents at their Thursday meeting at the Fair Lane Estate on the University's Dearborn Campus.
The regents approved two proposals regarding the LSI at their continued meeting held Friday in the Fleming Administration Building in Ann Arbor.
"In two to three years, we should have things up and running. In five years, we'll hope to have scientific discoveries," University President Lee Bollinger said Thursday.
The LSI complex is planned to rise along Washtenaw Avenue across from Palmer Field.
Regent Rebecca McGowan (D-Ann Arbor) said the LSI initiative was one of the most important things the University has undertook.
"This Board has watched this unfold," McGowan said at Friday's meeting, adding that during her time as a regent, the life sciences initiative was one of the most important proposals the regents have ever voted on.
"This is a great and defining moment for the University," Regent Laurence Deitch (D-Bloomfield Hills) said.
According to documents presented to the regents at Thursday's meeting, the University will earmark $200 million for the creation of the LSI with $90 million of that amount aimed for construction costs.
Bollinger said the initial design schematics for the LSI fit in with the Master Plan - an initiative to join the different areas of the Ann Arbor campus through physically cohesive planning.
University Chief Financial Officer Robert Kasdin said the LSI will fill a gap that separates the Central and Medical campuses.
"It's the last piece of major real estate left on Central Campus," he said, adding that "this plan creates a space where there is currently a wasteland."
The area where the LSI is to be built, known as the Palmer Drive site, is adjacent to North Hall, the University Power Plant, the Fletcher Street parking structure and the North University Building.
Architects Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi presented the plans for the LSI, which include:
n three new buildings on the site, one for the LSI and two for non-laboratory academics, one with a cafeteria.
n a large parking structure below the complex.
n a walkway, courtyard and pedestrian bridge over Washtenaw Avenue connecting the LSI and Zina Pitcher Place near Couzens Residence Hall.
"We're going to do what people have wanted to do for a century," Kasdin said, referring to how the plan will directly link Central and Medical campuses.
According to the plan, a seven-story laboratory building is expected to be built north of the site, across East Huron Street from the Power Plant, between Zina Pitcher Place and Glen Avenue.
At Thursday's meeting, a number of administrators and deans told the regents how the LSI will benefit the academic environment at the University.
Allen Lichter, dean of the Medical School, said discoveries made at the LSI will further medical science.
"If we have the people organized in the right fashion, we will be able to reveal the secrets of life," he said, adding that "we are at a truly historical place in medical science."
Provost Nancy Cantor said the LSI will bring students and faculty of various departments together.
"It will serve as a gathering place for departments across campus ... and will serve as a centerpiece," Cantor said.
Patricia Gurin, interim dean of LSA, told the regents how the University wants undergraduate education to benefit from the LSI.
Gurin said a new undergraduate living-learning program focusing on life sciences, will be housed at Couzens Hall after the LSI is up and running.
n LSI students and faculty will research cognitive neuroscience, genomics and structural and chemical biology.
n The LSI will work in collaboration with other universities, institutions and related industries.
05-24-99
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