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Moving the College of Business and College of Education, Health and Human Services, both now housed in the Fairlane Center, to the main campus is one of the key parts of 51��Ƶ-Dearborn’s current . If all goes according to schedule, the faculty and administrative staff from CEHHS will make a move to what’s now the Administration Building in time for the Fall 2026 semester. (The building will also likely get a new name!) By late the following year, COB plans to take up residence in a renovated Social Sciences Building, much of which has been vacant ever since the College of Arts, Sciences and Letters brought its social science faculty to the CASL building a couple years ago, though some classes are still taught there.

Facilities teams will be kicking off one of the first big steps in that process in just a few weeks when they relocate administrative staff from the AB to temporary offices in the SSB in order to make way for construction teams. Director of Facilities Planning and Construction Emily Hamilton, who’s overseeing both projects, characterizes this as a more “modest” renovation than the recent overhaul of the Renick University Center’s first floor. But like that project, one of the guiding principles is to do a lot more within the same amount of space. Business Affairs will consolidate Financial Services and Student Accounts into the existing suite. All other administrative departments within the AB — the Chancellor’s Office, Provost’s Office, Office of Research, External Relations, Institutional Advancement and Alumni Engagement, and Human Resources — will be consolidated into the east wing of the building, making the west wing available for CEHHS. Hamilton says to accomplish that, the design teams are taking advantage of hybrid and remote work schedules, a dramatic decrease in the need for paper file storage, and shared reception areas, which have left many units needing less physical space. This new administrative wing of the building is also gaining a kitchen, a flexible meeting room space, a few flex offices and a copy room, all of which can be used by any of the administrative units. 

Most of the renovation budget is being funneled into the CEHHS wing of the building, where the plan calls for new faculty offices, a dean’s suite, a college-level advising office, two classrooms, open student collaboration and lounge spaces, and several multipurpose spaces that faculty and staff can use for meetings or lunch breaks. Hamilton says that if the budget allows, the team is also planning to update the underutilized open space in the middle of the building. Cosmetically, the interior is getting new paint, carpet, ceilings and some modern sliding office doors like those in the renovated RUC, which save a lot of space compared to conventional in-swing doors. 

The renovation of the SSB is currently in the early design phase, but Hamilton says they’re already discussing some exciting renovation ideas. On the exterior, the east side of the building will be getting a new, more welcoming entry. And inside, the team will be rethinking the two auditoriums. In conjunction with the Registrar's Office, the facilities team recently completed a space utilization study and found that there is diminishing need for this once-quintessential style of college classroom. (She says COB doesn’t use this classroom style at all anymore.) In a portion of these spaces, the plan calls for removing every other row of fixed theater seating so the new wider terraces can host fixed tables and moveable chairs, suitable for case study use. The design team is also investigating making a portion of these rooms ground level to house the college’s labs, including its flagship Bloomberg Lab. Similar to the lab’s current location in the Fairlane Center, you can expect lots of glass, so passersby can look in on the action. The SSB’s main hallway will also be widened to carve out more informal hangout and collaboration spaces for students, as well as space for events. 

With both the AB and SSB, Hamilton says the facilities team has collaborated closely with the colleges to create designs that best serve their needs. Work on the AB is currently out for bid and will begin this summer. Because the SSB is being used to temporarily house the administrative units, work won’t start on that project until the AB renovation is complete.

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Want to learn more about 51��Ƶ-Dearborn’s plans to reshape its physical campus? Check out our recent story on the Comprehensive Campus Plan. Story by Lou Blouin