Collections

The A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning (TC; also referred to as Taubman College) was established in 1931 as the College of Architecture. However, courses in architecture have been offered at the University of Michigan since 1876, and a department of architecture, formed in 1913, preceded the creation of the college. Since its formation, TC has offered courses and programs in several areas, including landscape architecture, urban planning, urban design, real estate, and, of course, architecture. The record group includes dean's administrative files and correspondence, other administrator files, meeting minutes, department and program files, materials from the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), lectures and other documentation on the Raoul Wallenberg lecture hosted by the college, and several photographs and negatives of the college and TC-related events.

The A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning (University of Michigan), records document the teaching of architecture and design at the University of Michigan beginning in 1878. The records include administrative files, correspondence committee minutes, reports, photographs and architectural drawings. The records have been received in a number of separate accessions which may include material that continues or complements record series from a previous accession or may overlap chronologically with previous accessions. This finding aid reflects the intellectual structure of the records by bringing like material together across accessions. As a consequence, in the container listing box numbers will not necessarily be in consecutive order.

The records are organized in the following principal series:

1. Minutes of Meetings
2. Dean's Administrative Files
3. National Architectural Accrediting Board
4. Miscellaneous (correspondence and select files)
5. Raoul. G. Wallenberg
6. Dean's Correspondence
7. Doctoral Program Files
8. Topical Files
9. Administrative Files
10. Architectural Drawings
11. Photographs and Negatives
12. Art and Architecture Building Renovations
13. Department of Urban Planning
14. Audio-Visual Material
15. Articles, Reports and Speeches
16. Artifacts
17. Archived School of Architecture Website

Professor of architecture at the University of Michigan; includes correspondence, professional organizational activities files, documentation, photographs, and architectural drawings accumulated during his work with the Michigan Historic Buildings Survey

The Emil Lorch papers are valuable for their documentation of the career of this important architectural educator and for that material about Michigan architecture and historic structures that Lorch accumulated in the course of his professional study and organizational involvement. The collection includes extensive correspondence with many of the country's leading architects, most notably members of the "Chicago School," and architectural educators, and manuscript and photographic documentation resulting from Lorch's involvement with the Michigan Historic Buildings Survey and various restoration projects, including Mackinac Island.

Blueprints, renderings, and blue-line prints of original University structures, and additions to, and alterations of existing structures. Architects and architectural firms represented include: Albert Kahn, Alexander J. Davis, Pond and Pond, C. William Palmer, and William LeBaron Jenney.

This collection of University of Michigan architectural blueprints, renderings, and blueline prints has been drawn together from different sources. The provenance is not always clear, though most of the sheets probably originated with the Buildings and Grounds Department of the University. The collection is selective and does not include all campus buildings. Significant buildings are included, however, as are important architects and architectural firms. Represented in the collection are the works of Albert Kahn, Alexander J. Davis, Pond and Pond, the Chicago architectural firm, C. William Palmer, William L. Jenney, and York and Sawyer of New York.

Architectural drawings of the firm of Z.T. Gerganoff, of Ypsilanti, Michigan, (and predecessor firms of R.S. Gerganoff and S.T. Gerganoff). Drawings and specifications for various area churches, service stations and auto dealerships, the Washtenaw County Building, the Ypsi-Ann Building, and miscellaneous businesses and private residences.

The Z. T. Gerganoff records represent a small portion of the firms output. In 1983, the firm's offices at 206 N. Washington in Ypsilanti were sold, and its records offered to the Michigan Historical Collections. Many of the records had been scattered or destroyed over the years, due to the firm's need for space and its practice of returning records to clients after the completion of a job.

Of the records remaining in the office in July 1983, the Michigan Historical Collections accessioned architectural drawings and specifications relating to churches, service stations and auto dealerships, the Washtenaw County Building, Washtenaw Country Club clubhouse, and a few other buildings, along with miscellaneous renderings of residences, apartment buildings, and businesses. Left at the office to be destroyed were drawings of other county courthouses and schools. Drawings of many Ypsilanti buildings had been donated to the Ypsilanti Historical Museum, and drawings of Eastern Michigan University buildings had been turned over to the University.

This record group consists of architectural drawings for 56 of Gerganoff's projects and a smaller series of specifications for two projects. The architectural drawings series is composed of three subseries: churches; service stations and auto dealerships; and other buildings. Within each subseries, buildings are arranged by location and then chronologically (by job number), with undated and miscellaneous material at the end.