The McGregor Memorial Conference Center is an office building located at 495 Ferry Mall, on the campus of

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...

in Midtown

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. Completed in 1958, the building was the first commission of the noted Japanese-American architect

Minoru Yamasaki was an American architect, best known for designing the original World Trade Center in New York City and several other large-scale projects. Yamasaki was one of the most prominent architects of the 20th century. He and fellow architect Edward D ...

marking his shift from traditional International Style to a style known as the

New Formalism New Formalism is a late 20th- and early 21st-century movement in American poetry that has promoted a return to metrical, rhymed verse and narrative poetry on the grounds that all three are necessary if American poetry is to compete with novels an ...

. The building was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

for its architecture in 2015.

History

The McGregor Memorial Conference Center was funded by the McGregor Fund, as a memorial to Tracy W. and Katherine McGregor who initiated the fund in 1925. The McGregor Fund specified that the building be used as "a community conference center for groups of citizens interested in exploring ways and means of being helpful to others." To that end, Wayne State University hired architect

in August 1955 to design the building. The commission came after Yamasaki's long convalescence and subsequent trip to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, and was his first opportunity to put into practice his re-envisionment of architecture. The center was completed in 1958, and opened to immediate accolades from architectural magazines who called it "delightful" and "refreshing," and from the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...

who awarded Yamasaki a First Honor Award for the design. Over the next seven years, Yamasaki designed three more buildings for Wayne's campus: the Education Building,

Prentis Hall Prentis Hall is a historic building located on the Manhattanville campus of Columbia University at 632 West 125th Street. It houses the university's department of music and the Computer Music Center, as well as facilities for the School of the ...

, and DeRoy Auditorium.

Description

The McGregor Memorial Conference Center is a two-story symmetrical pavilion covered with

travertine Travertine ( ) is a form of terrestrial limestone deposited around mineral springs, especially hot springs. It often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, cream-colored, and even rusty varieties. It is formed by a pro ...

marble. It sits on a podium faced with Mankato stone, with integral reflecting pool and sunken garden wrapping around the building on two sides. The building exhibits a triangular design motif on the outside and inside. Inside, a skylit entry hall, dividing the interior space in two, is flanked by two levels of conference rooms. The McGregor Center contains 11 meeting rooms, a 600-seat auditorium, a reception area, and a exhibit space. The conference rooms can be combined to accommodate groups of various sizes. Interior design features white marble floors, red carpeting, and black leather chairs by

Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd ...

Gallery

Image:McGregor Center Wayne State Univ B.JPG, Side view of center showing beam structure Image:McGregor Center Wayne State Univ C.JPG, Pond in rear of Center Image:McGregor Center Wayne State Univ D.JPG, Pond in relation to Center

References

{{Architecture of metropolitan Detroit National Register of Historic Places in Detroit Wayne State University 1958 establishments in Michigan Buildings and structures completed in 1958 International style architecture in Michigan National Historic Landmarks in Michigan Minoru Yamasaki buildings

History

Description

Gallery

See also

References