By John Woodford

Not long before he died in 1993, the renowned architect Charles W. Moore '47, '92 PhD (Hon.), of the Moore-Andersson firm in Austin, Texas, sent a conceptual set of drawings of the design for Lurie Tower to the Ann Arbor architectural firm of Hobbs and Black Associates (H and B).

The drawings found their way to the desk of design team member Donn Perez '95 BArch, an H and B intern who is pursuing an MA at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Like Moore and Perez, the principals of the firm, William S. Hobbs ('59 B Arch) and Richard V. Black ('64 B Arch), are Architecture alumni.

"The drawing showed what the outside of the tower should look like," Perez says, "the form, size and plan of what you see. Our job at Hobbs and Black was to determine how to build it, what would be inside it, what patterns the bricks should lie in and other features. My main involvement was to place all of the necessary information into the computer accurately. That information is critical."

Perez made a set of drawings to represent the different levels of the tower. "The specifications for the roof are critical," he says. "It can't leak. The design for the roof is there, but the design alone doesn't guarantee that the roof is going to work. We have to have accurate drawings with accurate specifications to make sure everything works."

Working closely with the project architect, Ross Serbay, it took Perez almost five months to complete the computer drawings in the summer of 1994. "Having Ross as a supervisor was a great learning experience for me," Perez says. "He has a lot of experience in the field and really knows how to put buildings together."

Another set of drawings was done by hand—Perez says they are "a work of art in themselves"— by another U-M Architecture graduate at H and B, Dan Sonntag. "Those drawings show how to put the building together," Perez said.

Perez was part of a team that included architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical and carillon groups. In addition to completing the drawings Perez also worked on documenting the construction process of the Bell Tower. "I believe that one of the most important training opportunities for an architectural student is to take the time to visit construction sites and really see how buildings are put together," he says.

The project's structural engineer, Robert M. Darvas, U-M professor emeritus of architecture, "made all of the structural calculations and figured out all of the structural requirements for the Tower," Perez says.

Among the tasks handled by Darvas Associates were to figure out how much concrete was needed, to determine the load and weight forces of bricks and other connective materials, and to devise how to attach the cavity-wall construction. This last job involved connecting a brick outer layer to the concrete inner layer across an insulating and drainage space in between. The bricks are anchored to the wall in sections with a metal-into-foam locking device.

Hobbs and Black also made another Moore-Andersson design a reality the Robert H. Lurie Engineering Center. The $17 million structure rivals the Rackham Building and the Law Quad as the most beautiful edifices on campus. Funds for the two new Lurie buildings came from a gift to the U-M from the Ann and Robert Lurie Family Foundation in memory of Robert H. Lurie.

Perez said it is likely to be a long time before he gets a chance to be a team leader for a project like Lurie Tower. "There ought to be a special barber shop for architects," he suggested, "one that would put gray into their hair, because most architects rarely get plum jobs until they've reach later middle age."