Hannah Community Center

East Lansing, Michigan

Projects:

Building Renovation, 110,000SF

Mitchell and Mouat spent extensive time meeting with Community Groups and City staff to help develop a facility that would meet the needs of diverse groups and still capitalize on the historic features that once existed.  Using cues from old photos and drawings, historical details were reconstructed, and what was Old is New again. 

 

The once grand central corridor, which had been reduced in scale to hide utilities, has been allowed to rise to former heights - with a new coved ceiling and rail-and-stile paneling that accents circulation nodes.

 

The original Auditorium Lobby once had the classic lines and wonderful materials of the 1920’s - vaulted ceilings, plaster rope details at cornices, arched doors and windows, and the rail-and-stile paneling that lent inspirations to our renovation.

 

 

The City had purchased a recently abandoned  Jr. High School building, that had significant historic roots in East Lansing,  to renovate into a Community Center.  The assets of the old building - a classic Auditorium, a small Natatorium, two gymnasiums, and a central neighborhood location, all offered a promising future.