UM Anthropology, Zoology Relocation Planned

A $27.45 million project to move offices and “dry” research collections of the University of Michigan departments of anthropology, paleontology and zoology was approved by the UM board of regents on Feb. 21, 2013. The collections, labs and offices are now in three locations: at the Ruthven Museums building (1109 Geddes), Campus Safety Services building (1239 Kipke, near the Crisler Center) and the Clarence Cook Little Science building (1100 N. University Ave.).

The new location will be at the university’s Varsity Drive building (3600 Varsity Drive, off of Ellsworth Road), where about 71,000 square feet of space will be renovated to accommodate these departments and collections of bones and other objects. The project will be designed by SmithGroupJJR, and is expected to create an average of 63 on-site construction jobs, according to a staff memo.

In presenting the project for approval, Tim Slottow – UM’s chief financial officer – noted that the changes will improve access to the collection, and will include better parking.

This is the second relatively recent relocation to the former University Stores warehouse on Varsity Drive. In late 2008, regents approved a $17.6 million project that included renovating about 46,000 square feet at the Varsity Drive building. That space became home for about 6 million specimens – the majority of the “wet” collection, or specimens stored in glass jars filled with highly combustible ethyl alcohol – from UM’s Museum of Zoology. That collection also was previously housed at the Ruthven Museums building. The Varsity Drive building already houses the UM Herbarium.

This brief was filed from the Anderson Room at the Michigan Union, where this month’s regents meeting was held.