Our Michigan

Our Michigan: Spaces & Places tells the University of Michigan’s story through its ever-changing shape—from a cluster of scattershot structures dotting a bare 19th century Diag to a massive research enterprise spanning multiple 21st-century campuses. Today’s laboratories invite collaboration. Modern-day makerspaces encourage innovation. Immersive technology transforms the classroom into a surgical suite, a coral garden or a factory floor. Interactive museums spark discovery; reconfigurable classrooms cultivate teamwork; and athletic facilities promote health and well-being. For two centuries, university leaders, planners and architects have remained steadfast in their common quest to create knowledge by developing research and teaching facilities that meet society’s evolving demands. But this is not a book about bricks and mortar. It is about the people and ideas that animate the university—and influence its physical transformation—through historic advances in science, medicine, industry, business, culture, the arts and more. This book pays tribute to the early visionaries who created the blueprint that set Michigan on course to become the world-renowned research university it is today. In these pages, we also celebrate the modern-day seekers who continue to envision the future and create the environment to welcome it.