II NEWS Tho Mirhisian r)nily - hAnnrlav lily 71 ')nnQ - I i ne micnigan uaiiy - monaay, my L1, zuu i - j City dedicates plaques, honors campus history By Adil Hussain For the Daily A consortium of local history buffs, townspeo- ple and University scholars are working together to create historic street exhibits around the Uni- versity campus and downtown Ann Arbor. Known as the Ann Arbor Historical Street Exhibit Program, the permanent, fiberglass street exhibits depict scenes and architecture of the local area from a by-gone era. One of the most recent exhibits installed is a glass plaque and a black-and-white lithograph of the campus in 1907, next to the Michigan Union. The exhibit may be of special interest to students because it depicts a college grounds that contrasts with architecture from the present day campus. "Many of our Victorian-era buildings used a wooden construction on the inside; if they didn't burst into flames on their own, they were torn down because they were seen as fire-hazards," former University President John Duderstadt said. "There were movements to try to save major buildings, such as University Hall, but in the end they proved ineffectual," said Anne Duder- stadt, wife of the former president and author of "The President's House at the University of "It was significantly cheaper to tear down an old building than to try to reconstruct and preserve an old one." - Anne Duderstadt Author, "The President's House at the University of Michigan" Michigan", which chronicles University history. "It was significantly cheaper to tear down an old building than to try to reconstruct and preserve an old one." The Duderstadts say it is difficult to stifle the feeling of loss for the diminished grandeur of the University when viewing the street exhibit, espe- cially when confronted with now-demolished architectural structures like University Hall, a predecessor of Angell Hall; or the Old Medical School building, a pillared Greek-revival struc- ture, and the General Library, with its elegant stat- ue-dominated reading room. As the exhibit recounts, only five of the original structures shown on the 1907 lithograph are left standing. Buildings were demolished primarily because of poor configuration due to excessive renovation as they had become too dilapidated or as they were outgrown, according to Director of Plant Extensions Paul Spradlin, who has been the over- seer of all campus construction and renovation over the last fifty years. "Structures were torn down for a few main rea- sons. The original buildings were renovated and added onto so much because of the constant need for additional classroom and laboratory space that they reached a point where their layout and design became almost haphazard and it was impractical to renovate more." Spradlin added that, "even though the outside facades of brick or masonry looked good, on the inside these buildings were minimally constructed and they began to be very old and decrepit. Many times the departments that these buildings housed grew so much that the geographical location of their buildings become somehow inadequate or illogically configured." Spradlin recognized that these considerations largely ignore the structures' aesthetic and histori- cal value. "People didn't worry about history. Only in the last fifty to seven- ty years have we become more conscious about the his- torical value of campus archi- tecture," Spradlin said. Some may question how other campuses maintained their historical structures while some of the Universi- ty's were smashed with the wrecking ball. The campus had little land -- it had become enveloped in a live- ly and historical town in its own right -- there was nowhere else to expand and the administration had to build facilities for a bur- geoning student body that the old buildings simply could not accommodate. Financial constraints also limited the Universi- ty. "State budgeting in the (19)50s-'70s simply did not allow for structures beyond the simple roofed cube, like the Modern Languages Build- ing," Spradlin said. Spradlin is quick to point out that the changes in campus scenery in the last hundred years have maintained some buildings of historical merit. One merely has to visit the Cook Law Quadran- gle, which he said is easily the most ambitious and sublime of all Michigan architecture ever built. A less obvious example is the Ingalls Mall - the gardens and fountain between the flagpole north of the Diag and the Rackham building replaced a giant parking lot only twenty years ago. Until just eight years ago, the UGLi used to have a checkered blue plastic facade like the Frieze Building. Sye A picture of Universty Hall before 1898 depicts people relaxing on the lawn. The building, which was near Angell Hall, was demolished In 1950. Corrections: In last week's Daily, it should have been reported that Ward Con- nerly is a regent of the University of California, as regents are appointed at-large and do not rep- resent specific campuses. Also, it should have been men- tioned that a voter initiative on out- lawing racial preferences will only be placed on the ballot if Connerly is successful in gathering enough signatures. "Don't let your ahead of A R BE R S ESTABLISHED 1939 NEW LOCATION 304 1/2S. 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