Draft:University Microfilms Building

• Comment: This was created in mainsapce. I viewed it as not yet ready and moved it to Draft where I have submitted it for review on behalf of the creating editor. 🇺🇦 Fiddle^Timtrent Faddle^Talk to me 🇺🇦 15:02, 15 February 2025 (UTC)

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University Microfilms
The University Microfilms Building, 2019
General information
Status	Renovated by MI-HQ in 2023
Type	Information Distribution Company
Location	300 N Zeeb Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.
Construction started	1963
Completed	1964 (With at least five expansions until 1990)
Technical details
Floor area	160,000 sq ft (15,000 m2)
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Alden B Dow

The University Microfilms Building is a 160,000 square foot industrial complex in Scio Township that was used to store and process film and microfiche. Construction on the building began in 1963, contracted under the Alden Dow architectural firm, the building is designed to 'blend in with the surrounding landscape'.

Structure

The Alden Dow studio designed the original, modernist, concrete and brick structure to stand at 96,000 sq ft (8,900 m²), the building was designed to have a large, illuminated reflection pool that could be filled with the building's recycled water from film processing. The building's 23 offices were lined with boxy windows that hung out over the reflection pool, with awnings on the underside. A predominant stucco, cantilever-style, frieze surrounds the structure, this counterweight dismisses the need for any pillars to support the building's skylight. The structure also received three dark-rooms, and a basement with film vault, with chemical storage, and any HVAC and electrical systems were hidden in the second floor.

The original structure received several expansions by various architectural firms, including: a new film vault located in a separate building, as well as a 70,000 sq ft (6,500 m²) sq ft of new floorspace, with infrastructural improvements to accommodate the growing complex.

Under University Microfilms, later renamed to ProQuest, this building was used to convert news clippings, articles, and journals into microfilm. This microfilm would be stored in the company's on-site film vault, the vault was noted to store at least 6.5 billion pages of readily available information. In 2005, ProQuest moved, and the Zeeb Road operations were sold to a digitization company called National Archive Publishing. NAPC ended up selling their assets back to ProQuest in 2007, and the company's property was bought out by Superior Capital in 2009.

Vacancy

Superior Capital ended up selling the University Microfilms parcel to MAVD. MAVD soon pitched a plan to demolish the structure and replace it with a new strip-mall, which never came to fruition. In 2014 a man was electrocuted, and died in the building whilst scrapping copper wire.

Current Status

In 2023, after board approval, a brownfield plan was put into place for the property's cleanup, receiving $1,000,000 in grants, as well as a five year tax-break. Mi-HQ, a Michigan-Based tech innovation company, had purchased the Microfilms building from MAVD, for with plans to renovate the property. The interior structure had suffered extensive water damage; the property was also noted to have loose vinyl-asbestos tiles, a severe black-mold issue, as well as chlorine ground water contamination.