Location: Saginaw, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow In July 1963, Alden B. Dow began the first drawings for a new building for the Young Women’s Christian Association in Saginaw on South Jefferson Avenue. The Association had been housed in various temporary...
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow The Dunbar Community Center was founded in 1923 in Ann Arbor by the Rev. R.M. Gilbert of the Second Baptist Church. Named for the noted Black poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, it was a vibrant gathering place for the...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow The first discussion about the design of a structure to cover farmers selling their produce in the open parking lot at the foot of Ashman Street took place in March 1973. Those meeting notes describe a simple...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow As early as 1965, the long-range plan for the Center called for a building with a museum, library, auditorium, classroom, workshop and related facilities. In 1970, three years after the completion of the Nature...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow The Nature Observatory (Nature Study Building) The inspiration to establish a place for the study of the natural environment in the Midland area first came to the members of the Midland Nature Club in 1963. Their...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Midland Fire Station No. 1 is one of the 39 civic structures designed by Alden B. Dow during his career. He completed the working drawings on April 23, 1955, and in June the construction contract was awarded to...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Alden B. Dow’s initial presentation drawing for a proposed Midland Hospital was dated August 1938, a full two years before the Midland Hospital Association was established. The Association organized the fund...
Location: Kalamazoo, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow After protecting the Sun/Rain Room for nearly six decades, the Kalamazoo Nature Center’s iconic dome and roof are being replaced. Designed by Alden B. Dow in 1961 and opened to the public in September 1964, the...
As President of the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation, Alden B. Dow wrote a letter to Midland’s city manager in 1950 expressing the Foundation’s wish to finance the design and construction of a new public library to be situated in what then was the family’s...
Beginning in 1949, the Phoenix Civic Center was designed in stages by Alden B. Dow. His plan grouped a public library, a little theater, an art museum, and support facilities around a square interior courtyard whose landscaping included a pool and native plants,...