ANN ARBOR—The University of Michigan will build a new multicultural center near the heart of campus to serve students of many cultural identities.

The U-M Board of Regents today approved the $10 million facility. It will be built on a vacant site along South State Street behind the Betsey Barbour House and Helen Newberry Residence, two smaller residence halls that face Maynard Street.

Once built, the new facility would replace the current William Monroe Trotter Multicultural Center, which sits off campus at 1443 Washtenaw Ave. This former fraternity house has been the home of the multicultural center since 1972. It was last updated with $300,000 in renovations during summer 2014.

The new center is a result of extensive outreach and input from students and other members of the university community. Engagement included four town hall meetings over the past nine months, eight focus group sessions, benchmarking to other college and university multicultural centers, and a survey of students.

That input, along with institutional knowledge of the existing multicultural center student uses, resulted in a proposal for a 20,000-square-foot facility that will both accommodate spaces from the current center and add a multipurpose room able to accommodate 300 people for banquets or conferences, and an active-learning, classroom-style configuration for 100 students. The current multicultural center encompasses 11,000 square feet.

​”The idea for a new multicultural center began with students and students have been the driving energy in all our planning,” said E. Royster Harper, vice president for student life. “In town hall meetings and many focus groups, students gave feedback about what the building should provide, and about the location that might work best. Taking together all these voices, we found the location on State Street to be the best fit for students’ needs.”

Approval of the project included the appointment of the Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas + Company for design. Funding will be provided by investment proceeds and gifts.