A new University of Michigan residential community is set to open this month, adding thousands of beds and a new dining hall on the university's Central Campus.
Wolverine Village, located on the site of the former Elbel Field near Michigan Stadium, adds 2,300 beds — a 25% increase in U-M's total undergraduate housing capacity — along with an 830-seat dining hall. The university's budget for the project stands at $649 million, and U-M said it remains within approved funding. U-M officials said they believe it is the largest dormitory project anywhere.
"There was a need, particularly in the Ann Arbor market, and with all the private properties that are sparking up around central campus," Rick Gibson, U-M’s director of housing, said. "We're still
an affordable option, so that was a priority for the institution."
Gibson said that in recent years, some students who were hoping to return to a dorm for another year didn't get a spot.
Wolverine Village is the first U-M housing complex built specifically for first-year students since the Oxford Houses opened in 1963. The university's most recent major residential project, the Munger Graduate Residences, opened in 2015 and is designed for graduate students.
Construction on Wolverine Village began in 2023. There are five buildings in the complex, ranging from five to seven stories. Room types include singles, doubles and suites, according to a story in the University Record, the university's official news publication. As part of a media tour on Aug. 19, the Detroit Free Press saw a suite, which had two bedrooms (each with two twin beds and two desks), along with two bathrooms.
The design incorporated feedback from students, including an emphasis on natural light. The complex includes flexible study and gathering spaces, community kitchens, a game room and laundry rooms in each building.
The dining room has three-story windows, a living green wall, a teaching kitchen and an all-electric kitchen, U-M said.
The interiors draw inspiration from the Great Lakes, Gibson said, with each building featuring its own color palette. Much of the art throughout the complex was created by local artists or artists with ties to the university, he said.
The new buildings reflect how student housing has changed in the decades since Oxford Houses were built.
"The finishes have changed, the technology, the focus on sustainability, bringing daylight into spaces like the dining hall," Gibson said. "That's at a different level."
He said, though, the purpose of university housing remains largely unchanged: providing students with a community and resources beyond what they might find in an off-campus apartment.
General move-in at Wolverine Village starts Aug. 24.
Contact Adrienne Roberts: amroberts@freepress.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: See inside the University of Michigan's newest student housing complex
