As the interdisciplinary field of social science research stretches into new areas, the University of Michigan's
Institute for Social Research (ISR) is embarking on a $29 million expansion and renovation project.
The 56,700-square-foot addition will accommodate more hires and provide data archiving capacity and biospecimen laboratory and storage space. The five-story wing equates to a one-third increase in floor space at the Thompson Street building. Another 12,800 square feet of the existing facility will be reconfigured to blend with the addition. The ISR also has a 123,632 square-foot building on Perry Street.
The above-ground floors will contain more research offices, collaborative work areas, and a meeting room for up to 220 people. Data archiving and lab space are planned for the basement level. "There's going to be the ability to hold specimens and conduct assays on the specimens that we don't currently have the capacity for," says Anna Schork, assistant director of the institute.
The project will commence in August and is estimated to be complete by the summer of 2014. It is being funded through U-M's Office of the Provost, ISR resources, and a $14.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.
"We're fortunate from a funding environment that we're continuing on the upward trend, but we're also being mindful not to overbuild," Schork says.
Source: Anna Schork, assistant director of the Institute for Social Research
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar
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