w ~ w w 'w w w ~ w W w ! ! w w w w 7 w' qw North Quad Remix It's Over Your Head Architecture Column Wednesday. September 13, 2006 -- ThE Michgan Daily 9B niversity President Mary Sue Coleman and the other administrators were right to delay the North Quad project, choosing to perfect its architecture rather than accepting a mediocre design. The project's completion may be pushed back a year, but the permanence and importance of this building will affect generations of students, faculty and Ann Arborites for decades to come. This structure is to be the gateway to Central Campus from the north, yet the recent March proposal from architecture firm Ein- horn, Yaffee, Prescott showed alack- luster building, both piecemeal and uninviting. Most importantly, the proposed renderings did not express an externally unified charisma to harbor the building's innovative inte- rior. In July, the University hired Rob- ert A.M. Stern Architects to redesign North Quad while keeping Einhorn, Yaffee, Prescott on to retain the integrity of the interior program- ming. With this decision, the Uni- versity is poised to get more of, if not exactly, what they want for North Quad. Time and time again, Robert A.M. Stern Architects have proven that they are masters at adapting to context while providing traditional, distinguished architecture. Again, University officials have done the right thing. Problem solved ... Yet Monday, as people observed the five-year anniversary of Sept. 11, I too reflected on the impact of those events. What have we learned since then? Well, in the five years since that fateful day, the architectural community has certainly learned a lot. There have been innumerable difficulties plaguing the rebuilding of Ground Zero, and one message is resoundingly clear: When there is a large project with many stakeholders and overwhelming public interest, the problem is never really solved. Like the rebuilding of Ground Zero, North Quad has to deal with extremely high expectations, public scrutiny, budgetary constraints and extensive redesign. First, let us examine why North Quad's redesign is seemingly the. ideal solution. Still in a design devel- opment phase, the new North Quad can be sent back to the drawing board without major consequences. The project can be reexamined and redesigned by Robert A.M. Stern Architects as a whole project not peppered with substitutions or com- promise. Robert A.M. Stern Architects pride themselves on not believing "that any one style is appropriate to every building and every place." The firm is well versed in a diverse array of styles, from quasi-traditional to contemporary, and makes absolutely six separate universities - Duke, University of North Carolina, Brown, University of Texas, Columbia University and the University of Michigan. "We've reached a tipping point as an orga- nization," Spence says. Spence mostly provides guid- ance now, helping make connec- tions and handling legal concerns. "It's very much a working, partner relationship," she says. "Self-fund- raising is an important part." SoW worked its way into the University in the summer of 2003, when a group of five coor- dinated with five students from Texas to travel to Uganda. Since then they have traveled to South Africa, Cambodia and - most recently - India. In keeping with the program's tradition, the Uni- versity's division is extremely self-directed. Students control everything from the topic, to the fundraising, to the actual arrangements. In January, they decided as a group that they would study micro financing - the practice of distrib- uting small loans to poor entrepre- neurs - in India. From there, they raised the $7,000 in funding from a variety of campus groups, as well as family and friends. They began tapping SoW's connections within the Clinton Global Initia- tive (CGI). Eventually they encountered the Segal Foundation, a nonprofit working out of the Mewat region. Both groups had made commit- ments to CGI, and were able to fill them by working together. Mewat is an expansive area, located in northwest India, and is, as one student put it, "in the dump- ster in every way possible." The students stayed in Gurga- on - an outsourcing hub that has evolved from backwater town to a city of vast towers and expan- sive slums. They observed the Segal Foundation at work, document- ing humanitarian work in every- thing from water conservation and management to women's education. Though they origi- nally started in water, the foun- dation adopted the entire region after seeing the breadth of issues affecting them. The students were almost immediately struck by the region's poverty. In one city marketplace, child beggars swarmed the group. Unable to provide help for them, they were forced to ignore them. "It was very frustrating, because you couldn't help them at all," said LSA junior Allison Stewart. "You had to ignore it." The sad necessity of such dis- parity, said one student, is that "you had to act like you're that fully funded grants per year. "Basically, our project propos- al was to study the history of genocide in Cambodia," Nolan- Abrahamian says. "We were particularly interested in how Cambodia had, or hadn't, recon- ciled with its past." When the first request was successful, the pair turned to the Ginsberg Center, the International Institute, the LSA Dean's Office and the Center for International and Comparative Studies. The small grant snowballed, and even- tually the two ended up with over $7,000 - enough to cover all of their expenses. Go abroad, young man Undergraduate travel is a boon for the entire University com- munity. For students, it can be a cathartic and enriching moment in their development, sparking intel- lectual curiosity and new perspec- tives. For employers, it's a signal of maturity, openness and the abil- ity to adapt. For the University, it ensures that graduates are the kind of open-minded, freethinking people that this University should be turning out. The world is vast and you are young. And now, you have no excuse. No money spent, no credits to make up. And the year is still young. Get out there. Enjoy it. You'll be glad you did. An elderly man sits in a crowded room in Cambodia. A view of the front side of the Frieze Building. certain that the architecture they provide fits in with its surroundings. Robert A.M. Stern himself is a laud- ed architect with an accomplished career. Also a writer and academic, Stern has published many books and is the dean of the Yale University School of Architecture. Although once associated with the Post-mod- ern movement, his architecture has matured to reflect the past, a notion he calls "modern traditionalist." One example of his work is right here on campus. His firm designed the almost-completed Weill Hall for the Gerald R. Ford School of Pub- lic Policy at the corner of State and Hill streets. Deemed a success, the Ford School building matches the aesthetic prestige of the Law Quad and stands as a symbolic pillar and southern gateway to Central Cam- pus. In addition, the firm has fruit- fully completed a grand Southwest Quadrangle at Georgetown Univer- sity while working with none other than Einhorn, Yaffee, Prescott. Stern's firm is a seemingly perfect fit to revamp the North Quad design, but I would warn the University that the problem is not completely solved until North Quad is complete. Let us remember the continued debacle sur- rounding the rebuilding of Ground Zero. Our country's purity, clarity and unity that immediately ensued dur- ing the aftermath of Sept. 11 has since vaporized, just as the intelli- gibility of the Ground Zero design has long ago been distorted beyond recognition. Soon after the catastro- phe, an international design compe- tition was held for the rebuilding of Ground Zero. Daniel Libeskind won the competition with his Freedom Tower, and the problem was appar- ently solved. Five years later, the site's future is still uncertain and its financing questionable. Libeskind, tired of his Freedom Tower being manipulated, pulled his name from the project. And for all the world-renowned architects working on the project - Richard Rogers, Norman Foster, David Childs, Santiago Calatrava and Frank Gehry to name just a few - nothing has been built. There have been verbal attacks, pointed fingers, design squabbles and even lawsuits. The project has been pub- licized, politicized and commercial- ized. Many have deemed the project a failure, both architecturally and morally. Ground Zero's problem is that the project has too many voices, and most of them contradict each other. North Quad's redesign is not by any means an indicator that the project will be a downward spiral of crises like Ground Zero, but in order to avoid that fate, Robert A.M. Stern Architects needs to unify the design amid many bickering voices. University officials want a collegiate and distinctive build- ing that symbolizes a University entrance and has a "wow" factor, but these notions are contradic- tory. Advocates for preserving the Frieze Building are expect- ing a redesign that favors their opinions after disappointment that scheduled public forums had been postponed. Of course there are the community activists who picketed last spring and still want to restore the Frieze, while the University has made it clear that it will only save the Carnegie Library. Bloggers have speculated about hiring big name architects, and last year the MSA rallied to make the building sustainable and LEED certified. And now there is the delay, redesign and addition of a new lead design team. North Quad is on a good track backed by rational thinking, a supportive University and a good design team. Needless to say, though, the pressure is mounting, and recent history teaches us that good intentions don't always make good buildings. Ofcourse, that also means that many times they do. much above them." The Segal Foundation provided housing, as well as subjects for the interviews, minor transportation and translation services. The group of students, led by LSA senior Aderemi Abioye, often refer to the program jokingly as "The Real World: India." "Every time, it comes up," says LSA senior and two-time SoW participant Carla Thomas. It's not an unfair comparison. The seven SoW members were about as diverse as University groups come. Majors ranged from Latin American and Caribbean studies to Mechanical Engineer- ing. "Things come up when you go out of the country with seven indi- viduals and no one is alike at all," says Abioye. The tension of opposites is often productive, however. And travel certainly brings out people's opposites. "(Diversity) brings something new to the group, which is great," Thomas says, "You get different connec- tions, a lot of creative energy, but you get clashes too. It's a balance you have to find. The road less less traveled For those who can't stand the traffic on even the most obscure roads, the University offers plenty of opportunities to pave your own. For instance, the International Institute Individual Fellowship program offers up to $2,000 to "support internships, research projects or preliminary dissertation research abroad" for undergraduate University stu- dents. The International Institute is also associated with the presti- gious Fulbright award programs, which have funded undergradu- ate and graduate research abroad since 1948. The University will soon unveil the Wallenberg Scholarship. The grant is named for University grad- uate and Holocaust savior Raoul Wallenberg - you may recognize him as the subject of the statue outside Rackham auditorium. In keeping with Wallenberg's legacy, the scholarship will fund a year of humanitarian work abroad. This is largely in response to the overwhelming proportion of grants - such as the Fulbright - that focus on academic work. The details will be announced on Oct. 5, as part of the annual Wal- lenberg lecture. The Office of Academic Mul- ticultural Initiatives (OAMI) is another underused source of trav- el funding. Through the Student Academic Multicultural Initiatives (SAMI), OAMI grants awards of between $500 to $1500 to promote "involvement in academic multi- cultural activities:" Typically, this means travel. The Undergraduate Research and Opportunity Program (UROP) encourages students to pursue indi- vidual research projects. Though it is not widely advertised, funding for these projects can often extend to travel and field sites. Individual professors can also guide students to opportunities. Particularly in fields like Geology and Archaeology, research extends to foreign field sites. In some cases, students may be provided the opportunity to accompany and contribute to this research. EMMA NOLAN-ABRA HAMIAN/Daily While few of these grants breach a couple thousand dol- lars, the combination of a few is enough to provide at least a month or two of travel. Last sum- mer, LSA juniors Lara Finkbeiner and Emma Nolan-Abrahamian - a Michigan Daily photographer - did just that. Their work started with a simple proposal to the Center for Southeast Asian Studies - a group that typically offers four The Frieze Building sits on the site of the future North Quad.