Upgrades to UM’s Northwood Complex OK’d

At its Jan. 19, 2012 meeting, the University of Michigan board of regents authorized a $7.5 million upgrade to the fire alarm and boiler systems at Northwood I, II and III – a 58-building apartment complex on north campus with 686 units of student housing.

The complex had been mentioned at the regents’ Nov. 17, 2011 meeting in the context of other housing changes on north campus and elsewhere throughout UM’s student housing system. At that meeting, regents approved renovations at two dorms – Baits II on north campus, and East Quad on central campus – and discussed the need for a broader strategic plan for student housing. Royster Harper, the university’s vice president for student affairs, had informed regents that the living/learning communities in the Northwood apartments I and II would be expanded to Northwood III.

The renovations to Northwood will be designed by UM’s department of architecture, engineering and construction, in collaboration with Riverside Integrated Systems Inc. and Structural Design Inc. The project is expected to be completed by the summer of 2013.

The brief was filed from the colloquium room at UM’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business, where the regents meeting was held this month. A more detailed report will follow.