Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti is involved in its largest building boom since the 1960s as it invests hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade the campus literally from end to end.
New buildings are being constructed; existing structures are being remodeled — and, in some cases, repurposed; and green spaces are replacing older buildings. The overarching goal is to enhance campus life and attract new students.
“It’s taken us two, two-and-a-half years, to get us where we are,” says James Smith, president of EMU. “The planning has been going on for double that amount of time.”
To that end, in April the university unveiled two new laboratories in Sill Hall, which is the home of the GameAbove College of Engineering and Technology.
The labs are named in honor of business leaders and EMU alumni John Bodary, president of Woods Construction, and Jack Roush, founder and chairman of Roush Enterprises, both of whom contributed to the project. The $40-million renovation and expansion of the 92,625-square-foot Sill Hall, built in 1965, features modernized classrooms and labs, lecture halls, and student commons.
Other new amenities include themed labs dedicated to autonomous vehicle research, cybersecurity, virtual reality, robotics, and maker spaces.
GameAbove, an alumni group based in Fort Myers, Fla., falls under the CapStone Holdings Inc. umbrella. Since 2019, it has given more than $35 million to various athletic and academic causes at the Ypsilanti institution.
“These are exciting times at the GameAbove College of Engineering and Technology for our students and faculty,” says Mohamad Qatu, dean of the GameAbove College of Engineering and Technology. “With support from our local and international business community, we’ll continue to raise the profile of the GameAbove College of Engineering and Technology and its graduate students, who are well prepared to pursue their careers in engineering and technology fields.”
In 2019, the university updated Strong Hall, a science building that opened in 1958, to the tune of $36 million. “Strong Hall is a geosciences building,” Smith says of another project that took place during his time as president (he will retire at the end of his 10-year contract on June 30, 2026). “Geosciences have changed a lot in the last 25 years.”
The biggest investment, some $250 million, is in on-campus housing. Work is expected to be complete by the fall semester on two new apartment-style residence halls. Every other existing residence hall room has been renovated over the past few years.
“It’s a bright new day on our campus,” Smith says. “The level of investment in new modern living spaces and in demolishing older buildings is changing this great university’s footprint as we celebrate our 175th anniversary.
“At the same time, our investment in energy conservation measures is modernizing the infrastructure, which is an investment that will benefit the university for decades to come.”
The new buildings are Lakeview Apartments (near the student center) and Westview Apartments (situated between the main and west campuses).
“Students have said they want apartment-style living,” Smith says. “These aren’t glitzy apartments, but they’re what students want.”
The projects were done as a collaboration with Gilbane Building Co. in Detroit, a family-owned construction company. It built the new facilities, remodeled the existing dorms, and will manage all student housing.
“It’s a pretty complex agreement, but it’s one where we keep ownership,” Smith explains. “We own the buildings, and they’re working with us on either the rebuild or the new builds.”
Elsewhere on campus, the past will give way to modern times as Brown (built in 1949) and Munson (built in 1941) apartments, located in the center of campus across from Bowen Field House, onetime home of the EMU basketball team, are demolished.
Built before and after World War II, the buildings were well-constructed and outfitted, yet they had their shortcomings, given their age. In recent years they’ve been popular with international students because each suite had a kitchenette where they could cook food from their home countries.
“The one that was the most obvious was Jones-Goddard,” Smith says. “We’re trying to save as much of the statuary and architectural features as we can and put them in storage. It was riddled with asbestos and had been in mothballs since 2004. Brown-Munson lived a great life, but they were getting functionally obsolete.”
The two buildings, as well as the Jones-Goddard residence hall complex, constructed in 1948 and 1955, respectively, will make way for green space, which is expected to be finished by the end of this year.
Final construction of the new Windgate Arts Complex in the EMU School of Art and Design opened this summer. The complex, funded in part by a gift from the Windgate Foundation, is designed to advance opportunities in several arts disciplines by providing a new and expanded space that establishes a collaborative, creative environment for art-making.
EMU President James Smith has overseen a building blitz during his eight years at the school’s helm.
sometimes it looks like we’re just doing things for a facelift…all of these (projects)are to meet student needs.” — james smith, emu president
It houses sculpture, ceramics, furniture design, digital fabrication, 3-D design, and metalsmithing. The programs were previously housed in several buildings scattered across campus.
Meanwhile, reconstruction of the main floor at the Halle Library, which opened in 1998, transformed it into a state-of-the-art information commons. The renovation included an improved Academic Projects Center, a new gallery, the addition of two centers: the Civil Rights and Social Justice Center, and the Center for Jewish Studies.
The Holman Success Center, Faculty Development Center, University Writing Center, and Academic Projects Center will remain in the building. University Archives and the Oral History Program will move to the first floor as part of the project for increased visibility.
The renovation also includes new student study and research space, and three recording studios for student/faculty use for podcasts and other recording projects. Work began in May and was completed in August 2024.
That project was the result of a gift from the Diane and Bruce Halle Foundation. Bruce T. Halle, who died in 2018, was the founder of Discount Tire and an EMU alumnus.
Looking to reduce electrical, heat, and water demand on campus, Eastern started a $25-million, three-year project investment this summer, including LED lighting upgrades at the Mark Jefferson science building, Oestrike Stadium (baseball), the Coating Research Institute, the Pray Harrold classroom building, the Student Center, the Porter teacher education building, Warner Gymnasium, Halle Library, and others.
Boone Hall, which is part of the upgrades, was named for Richard Gause Boone, the principal who in 1899 led a successful lobbying effort to rename the school Michigan State Normal College.
Seven existing building also received building automation systems upgrades and optimization. The installation of interior classroom locks is part of an ongoing campus safety initiative.
New electrical infrastructure is being put in place to better serve the Cornell apartments and Fletcher building, which houses the Autism Collaborative Center and EMU’s Children’s Institute. The work will involve boring holes underground. The engineering process is underway and completion is expected in winter 2025.
Using funding from the State of Michigan’s Caring for MI Future: Facilities Improvement Fund, further renovations to the Fletcher Building included new classroom space to support growing demand for Children’s Institute services. Other improvements were made at the Alexander Music Building, which opened in 1980, and the observatory dome of Sherzer Hall, dedicated in 1903.
West Campus, which is home to Rynearson Stadium (football), Oestrike Stadium, the George Gervin GameAbove Center, and other athletic facilities will undergo electrical infrastructure upgrades. The project is expected to be completed in winter 2025.
This summer’s projects were a continuation of the work Smith started on his arrival at Eastern in 2016.
One of Smith’s first projects was finalized in 2020, when Eastern opened its refurbished Olds-Robb Rec/IM building at a cost of $16.8 million in student fees. “The students taxed themselves for that, and have resoundingly said it’s a great investment,” Smith says.
Originally built in 1982, many of the Rec/IM’s facilities were obsolete.
“When it was built in the 1980s, racquetball and squash were very popular, and (lately) they weren’t being used,” Smith explains. “Now we have pickleball courts and a studio where you can do Zumba and Pilates. To me, it looks like a high-end fitness center. We took out a concrete wall and replaced it with glass so you can look out at a pond.”
In addition to the glass wall, the original space, which spans 72,000 square feet, was redone. Another 33,000 square feet was added, as well.
Next year, Eastern will spend $42.5 million, 75 percent of which will be state funds, to renovate Roosevelt Hall to accommodate expansion of the GameAbove College of Engineering and Technology. Work is expected to be completed in 2028. The building originally was constructed in 1924 as a laboratory high school for EMU’s College of Education.
“The big takeaway for someone who hasn’t been here for a while is these are all things we’re doing to benefit students,” Smith stresses. “It’s not a glamor thing. Sometimes it looks like we’re doing things just for a face-lift, but we’re very headstrong on retention and graduation — and all of these are to meet student needs.”
Special Teams
EMU Athletic Director Scott Wetherbee, Maxx Crosby, and head football coach Chris Creighton.
Among the many building and remodeling projects at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti is the resurfacing of the Rynearson Stadium football field on the West Campus.
Following a $1 million donation to the EMU Athletic Department by Las Vegas Raiders defensive captain Maxx Crosby and his wife, Rachel, the new gray FieldTurf artificial field was named in Crosby’s honor.
The project included subsurface grading, field drainage and surface, and relocating the track and field track from the stadium to a nearby facility.
“First and foremost, Eastern Michigan University holds a very special place in my heart, and I’m incredibly grateful for the significant role my EMU experience has played in shaping my life as an athlete and as a man,” Crosby says. “Without EMU, I wouldn’t have the lifelong friends that now serve as advisers and business partners. Without EMU, I may not have ever had the opportunity to achieve my dream of playing in the National Football League.”
EMU Athletic Director Scott Wetherbee says the donation will help launch Phase Two of the Championship Building Plan. Phase One included the construction of the Student-Athlete Performance Center, which opened in 2019. Heavily supported by fundraising efforts, it was part of the Athletic Department’s plan to build a “safe and highly effective atmosphere” for student-athletes.
Details about the second phase of the Championship Building Plan have yet to be released.
“I’m a firm believer in the power of education and sports, and personally serve as an example of how they can positively impact both individuals and communities,” Crosby says.
— By Tim Keenan
Roosevelt Hall, 1930
Presidential Grounds
Eastern Michigan University, like the state’s other three “directional schools” — Central Michigan, Northern Michigan, and Western Michigan — started as a teachers’ college.
Michigan State Normal School was founded in 1849, and opened its doors in 1853. It was the first normal school in Michigan, and the first created outside the original 13 colonies.
Then Sen. John F. Kennedy in Detroit, 1960
President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt toured the campus in 1896, and three years later the school became Michigan State Normal College. At the time, it created the first four-year curriculum for a normal college in the nation.
With the additions of departments and the large educational enrollment after World War II, the school became Eastern Michigan College in 1956. Eastern Michigan achieved university status in 1959. A year later, then Sen. John F. Kennedy visited the campus.
Bill Clinton speaking at EMU Commencement, 2000
More than three decades later, President Bill Clinton gave a speech about women in business, and in 2000 returned to deliver the commencement address.
Today, the university has close to 13,352 students. Degree studies are offered in arts and sciences, business, education, nursing, technology, and more. — By Tim Keenan