Page 4-Sunday, October 22, 1978-The Michigan Daily The Michigan Daily-Sunday; Making, breaking plans. for future cam Engineering School to head up North; Central Campus holds its ground orty acres of level farm land and peach orchards seemed to be a better site for a university in 1837 than forty acres overlooking the Huron River. And so, the first plans for the University were altered and since then many more plans have been made and abandoned. The process of creating a campus was complex even in 1837. Architects and an administrative site selection committee squabbled over possible tracts of land before agreeing to build their university in the area surrounding the present-day Diag. Since then architects, administrators and construction crews have been called in repeatedly to build, and raze buildings as the needs of the institution and those of the university community have changed. And today's University administrators also have plans for the future of the campus. In m,< w1963, University administrators commissioned a planning study to suggest tentative physical changes for the campus and that study is still being used by University planners as a framework for campus development. Some of the recommendations of the 1963 study have been followed in detail while others have been set aside indefinitely. "The plan is still a very good one," says University Planner Fredrick Mayer. "It's good if you realize that it's meant only as a framework-something we can look to to make decisions on a continuing basis." Of course, plans do change. But if rising inflation rates continue to make the state legislature stingy with its funding for capital expansion at the University, and if the predicted drop in enrollment occurs, there will not be many new buildings around in 1990 and most of the old ones will still be standing. University administrators and planners agree that construction on campus in the * immediate future, except for minor exceptions, will concentrate on the rennovation of existing buildings rather than demolition and new construction. Central Campusfacesfew changes through the turn of the century. Above, Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library. Below, Waterman-Barbour Gym in the Gregg Krupa is co-editor of the Daily. process of demolition. Daily photos by Wayne Cable By Gregg Krupa, But there are'exceptions to this general rule. By 1985, the Engineering School will have abandoned its corner of the Diag and will be firmly established on North Campus in three buildings which are yet to be constructed. It is also probable that the Chemistry building will have a new wing that will stand on the open area to the east of the present structure, where Waterman-Barbour Gym once stood. The only other change in the physical layout of the campus currently being considered is an expansion of Tappan Hall which houses the History of Art Department. But according to Mayer, rennovation of existing buildings is far more feasible than new construction. "Basically you eventually find that you can usually accomplish your construction goals and do the job with less money by rennovating rather than starting from the ground up and constructing entirely new buildings," he says. Mayer adds that another reason for the lag in proposed construction is the University's interest in preserving the historical buildings on campus. However, administrators and Regents raised considerable objections to legislation making the campus a historic landmark protected by state law. The proposal was adopted last summer and was criticized by administrators because the statute limits the administration's power to design the physical campus. The University campus does in fact have a rich historical tradition. Over the years the University was able to attract some of America's best-known architects to design campus buildings. Foremost among these is Albert Kahn, the industrial architect who designed several General Motors Corporation factories as well as the -Ford Rouge plant. Kahn's architecture, as a result of this manufacturing methodology, combines the uncluttered appearance of exaggerated open spaces and natural light. According to Mayer, most of the buildings constructed on campus between 1920 and 1930 were designed by Kahn. These include Hill Auditorium, 1913; Angell Hall, 1924; C. C. Little Science Building, 1925; the Clements Library, 1923; and the Alexander Ruthven Museums, 1928. But even the University's best laid plans are subject to change. Originally, the University was to be situated on the Huron River close to the spot where the present Medical Center is located. Those early administrators, however, opted for the 40 acre site extending from North University to South University, between State St. and East University. And the campus grew within those perimeters until the Observatory was constructed in 1854. And in the years to follow University building began to spread out from that central point. By the 1920s, the athletic and medical campuses had begun to develop as well as the diagonal walkways across the original 40 acres. At the end of that decade the Michigan Union, East Engineering, and the Architecture Building stood as signs of the, growing academic community.' Snce then the campus has continued to ex- pand and borders betveen the city of Ann Arbor and the University have faded. Eventually, the University crossedthedHuron river to North Campus. The 100-page booklet which outlines the results of the 1963 study documents nearly every conceivable aspect of campus planning from "community considerations" to "major approach routes." But many of the proposed changes have not, and likely will never, come about. According to the grandiose plans of 1963, the area stretching from the Rackham Building to the Diag and from Hill Auditorium to the Michigan League was to be closed off to traffic and transformed into a grassy, pedestrian mall. The southeast corner of the Diag was also to have undergone a drastic change. West Engineering and the Randall Physics Laboratory were to have been demolished and a cluster of office and classroom buildings erected on the site. But 1963 was a long time ago and the economy of the state and the nation was much healthier then. There was more money to spend on higher education and no one was predicting the drastic decline in the number of college students demographers now predict for the next decade. "Our view of enrollment today is quite different than what it was in 1963," says Mayer, "back then, we, and a lot of other people were talking about enrollments of staggering size. There was one projection I recall being thrown around at Michigan State University talking about 60,000 students on that campus in the 1970s." University planners, however, have not been sitting idle. Currently. there areat least nine renovation programs planned for which the University has filed capital outlay requests with the state. These include renovations to the heating plant, and an addition to Tappan Hall and some remodeling on the inside of that building. The basement of the Pharmacy Building is scheduled to be remodeled and an addition to the School of Natural Resources is planned which will change the appearance of the building's inside court. That plan, however, has been pending in Lansing since 1973. When a large segment of the University community was in an uproar over the destruction of Waterman-Barbour, administrators claimed the gym was an inefficient use of space, and promised a new, badly-needed addition to the chemistry See,CAMPUS, Page 8 Top, West Engineering. Center, Tappan Hall, Below, the Chemistry Building, which will recej laboratories. NATURA[ SCIENCE 1 IKPUIERIYMdEM ' IY CENTRAL Ol ADRANG E EHBT X "_ PHY~SICSa * L - ASTRONOMY U8~ARY PARKINGO Tis s scionofa a SiD $WSEncued i.te entaHImpsIPanprpard EohsonT ohsn soyi 1963 Tha ectaposowsathepiag.uMisingheonrtionmps oflathereaednot'vho nonsaeoowrCntRoyand the present A diinist ration Building.