The upgrades, which are expected to cost $3 million, will connect the systems in both buildings to provide flexibility for future expansions, according to a staff memo. The two buildings, located on East Medical Center Drive on UM’s medical campus in Ann Arbor, were constructed in 1986 and cover a total of 2.3 million square feet for inpatient and outpatient medical services. The project is expected to be finished by the summer of 2013.

This brief was filed from the Fairlane Center at UM’s Dearborn campus, where regents are holding their May meeting.

Regents authorized a $13 million project on the first and second floors of the center, which were vacated after the opening of clinics in the C. S. Mott Children’s and Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospitals earlier this year. The 35,000-square-feet of space will be used for a multidisciplinary transplant clinic, an outpatient non-cancer infusion center, and a same-day pre-op clinic. In addition, clinical services will be expanded for neurology, neurosurgery, otolaryngology, and radiology. The outpatient pharmacy also will be relocated and expanded into a shared retail space with MedEQUIP.

The architectural firm of Harley Ellis Devereaux has been hired to design the project, which is expected to be complete by the spring of 2013. The center is a four-story building located at 1500 East Medical Center Drive, on UM’s medical complex.

In a separate vote, regents authorized $7.5 million in renovations of the center’s third floor, which houses outpatient clinics and administrative areas for the Internal Medicine department. The project will renovate 27,500-square-feet of clinical space for gastroenterology, pulmonary, renal, infectious diseases, rheumatology, medical genetics and general medicine.

This brief was filed from the Michigan Union’s Pendleton Room on UM’s Ann Arbor campus, where regents held their March meeting. A more detailed report will follow: [link]