A consortium of Southeast Michigan architecture and design firms has been hired to design a $600 million, 2.8 million-square-foot new university in Basra, Iraq to teach petroleum engineering.
This week, Iraq’s Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Ali Al-Adeeb, is touring projects created by the firms that are part of Icon Global Architecture Engineering — Albert Kahn, Rossetti, Saroki, Mannik & Smith, Kalabat, and Walbridge.
On the tour is the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan, Henry Ford Health System’s new hospital in West Bloomfield Township, Lawrence Technological University in Southfield and Michigan State University in East Lansing.
Al-Adeeb’s focus while touring will be on energy-efficient buildings, classrooms fostering a creative learning environment and building aesthetics.
Victor Saroki, CEO of Saroki Architecture in Birmingham, said the group originally pitched itself to the Iraqis about 18 months ago to build teaching hospitals. He said the higher education focus came later.
Saroki and Alan Cobb, president and CEO of Albert Kahn, said they’re proud to be part of a project that symbolizes Iraq getting back on its feet after 30 years of sanctions and war.
WWJ
26 November
