A summer workshop for about 15 EMU historic preservation graduate students resulted in an exceptional discovery: a building type unique to Michigan found on the campus of Interlochen Center for the Arts. The discovery was the highlight of the August 2006 seminar course, the results of which are being shared this spring with Interlochen officials. EMU students surveyed the center’s land, archives and facilities.

Interlochen has more than 450 buildings across its 1,200-acre campus. Among the students’ goals was determining whether Interlochen was a candidate for the National Register of Historic Places. The building type discovered (pictured above) is a stone hut used by students to practice music in solitude. In past research with hundreds of EMU graduate students, no such facility had ever been catalogued as a distinct architectural type in Michigan, said Dr. Ted Ligibel, a professor of geography and geology and head of EMU’s historic preservation program.

“It’s not often that students get to encounter new and unique building types,” Professor Ligibel said. “And Interlochen may have a corner on these types of practice huts.”

For each campus building, students made a physical observation, wrote a brief architectural description, mapped its location, provided an historical overview and looked for patterns across the campus. During this painstaking process, the stone-hut architectural type was discovered. Interlochen is about 20 miles south of Traverse City, and is a world-renowned music, art and performing arts school.