University of Michigan South 5th Residential Project Provides Essential Student Housing & Innovative Sustainability Solutions

SETTING A NEW STANDARD FOR SUSTAINABLE STUDENT LIVING

At the University of Michigan, students, faculty and staff are all part of Planet Blue – a university-wide initiative promoting climate action, carbon neutrality, and a more sustainable world.

ACC is playing its own important role in Planet Blue: we are currently developing a uniquely innovative residential quad designed to not only alleviate a decades-long shortage of on-campus student housing, but also significantly advance U-M’s sustainability goals.

South 5th Residential Housing & Dining is the largest single-phase development in ACC history – five housing halls with a total of almost 700,000 square feet, 2,300 beds and a 900-seat dining hall. South 5th is U-M’s first student housing public-private partnership and its first Central Campus housing built for first-year students since 1963. 

“This affordable on-campus housing for first-year students will also substantially further the University of Michigan’s carbon-neutrality objectives,” affirms Michael Cipriano, ACC Senior Vice President of Development. “U-M has an established goal of eliminating 100-percent of campus emissions by 2040, and South 5th is aimed to fulfill the American Institute of Architects Zero Energy Use Intensity targets, as well as to earn LEED Platinum certification.”

South 5th Residential features a leading-edge all-electric design, energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, a high-performance building envelope and rooftop solar panels.

“The dining hall is particularly pioneering,” asserts ACC Director of Planning & Construction Evan Julson. “It will also be fully electric – which is uncommon for dining halls – and will use a geothermal-well exchange system to supplement its utilities.”

ACC is serving as the developer and construction manager for the South 5th Residential project, while the university is funding it through the use of its own balance sheet and will fully manage the new facilities.

Another phase of Central Campus student housing is planned to begin once South 5th is complete. South 5th Residential is scheduled to be open and ready for student occupancy in Fall 2026.