Boos for the Big House

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Even Carl Luckenbach likes the Biomedical Science Research Building. The nearly half-million-square-foot building hugs the bend where Huron becomes Washtenaw with a glass-sheathed, curving facade that wraps around the “Pringle”—a potato-chip-shaped auditorium.

“I find that building inspiring,” says Quinn. “It’s elegant, exciting, forward looking, and a great example of a nationally important building right here in Ann Arbor. And the potato chip is fun and delightful.”

“It was a pathetic, totally nondescript corner,” recalls Marc Rueter, “and now it has one of the university’s more successful buildings. I particularly like its transparent glazing so you can read the structure through it.”

“The atrium space is a real pleasure to walk through,” says Strickland. “The architect [New York’s Polshek Parnership] realized people needed an alternative way to move through that block, so he’s giving them the choice of walking outside at the edge of the building or walking inside through this atrium—a pretty sophisticated move, in my opinion. And he treats it like a galleria and arranged it like a street, with a cafe with tables and chairs.”