During the 1950s and 1960s, Alden B. Dow built six university and three civic buildings in Ann Arbor. Perhaps his most unusual campus building was the University of Michigan Administration Building, which he designed in 1964. The exterior is like a geometric...
While the initial site plan for Midland High School was being sketched by Alden B. Dow in December of 1953, one corner of the same 60-acre plot of land was soon to become the location of Nelson Street Elementary School. For the design, the Board of Education again...
Alden B. Dow began the drawings for Northeast Elementary School in December of 1951. It had a simple floorplan of five classrooms, an office, and a work room lined up on either side of a single corridor. It featured a monitor roof with glass block windows rising...
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 highlight of the Center has been the two-story tall...
Dr. Mark Dick and his wife, Dr. Louise Schnute, were pediatricians practicing in Grand Rapids when they wrote to Alden B. Dow in March 1955 to ask if he would design a home for them. Dr. Schnute had first heard of the architect earlier when she was a resident at...
Nestled among tall pines and set into a sloping lot overlooking Burt Lake in northern Michigan, Indian River Catholic Church was designed by Alden B. Dow in 1948. Very little documentation exists aside from specifications for a church and rectory building—no...
The drawings for Woodcrest Elementary School, one of Alden B. Dow’s last educational projects, were completed in January of 1969. Construction bids were due in early May of that year, and the Board of Education of Midland Public Schools approved the bids and...
Pastor D.E. Howe first contacted Alden B. Dow about the possibility of designing a new building for the growing congregation of the Midland Seventh-Day Adventist Church in early 1961. Following a period of fund raising, sketches of the exterior and interior views...
Alden and Vada Dow were long-time supporters of the work of the Salvation Army in Midland. Mrs. Dow served on its advisory board during the 1950’s and 60’s, and Mr. Dow donated bushels of apples from the Dow orchards every year to the annual Fall Harvest Festival...
The initial site plan for Midland High School was sketched by Alden B. Dow in December of 1953. Preliminary floorplans were developed in April 1954, with working drawings finalized in November of that year. Barton-Malow Company from Detroit was selected as...
Alden B. Dow began the initial drawings for the East Ashman Church of God in April of 1953. A reduced version of the presentation drawing was published a month later in the Midland Daily News with the caption announcing the launch of a fundraising campaign for the...
Dr. John Grebe was a pioneer scientist and “idea man” who worked for the Dow Chemical Company for 41 years. Upon graduating from Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland with a degree in Physics in 1924, he caught the eye of Herbert Henry Dow, who was at Case...