North Campus Redux Sp2002
- Douglas S. Kelbaugh
- Kit McCullough
The North Campus Redux project is the work of University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning students, under the supervision of Dean Douglas Kelbaugh. These proposals are the result of several intersecting vectors. They include an anemic and incomplete sense of place, a perceived lack of new investment on the North Campus, the lack of a published comprehensive plan, a general restlessness among North Campus stakeholders about the pace and scope of development, and the willingness of Interim President Joe White to fund a study.
Despite the fact that the North Campus is now two generations old and home to a student population as large as that of Yale University, there are few reasons for people to voluntarily visit or spend time there.
There are, to be sure, positive qualities about the North Campus, including its natural features, spaciousness and relative calm. But these are amenities considered by many to be insufficient to attract and retain the best students and faculty, not to mention provide the range and quality of life that the 15,000 or so people who live, work and study there deserve.
The North Campus Redux proposals are simply that, proposals of directions the North Campus might take in coming years. As the world starts the new century, as the University of Michigan nears its bicentennial, and as the North Campus enters its second half-century, it seems a good time to step back, review old dreams, visions, and plans, take pride in successes, and look at possible course corrections, and new visions.