Burton Tower - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Burton Memorial Tower is a clock tower

Clock tower

A clock tower is a tower specifically built with one or more clock faces. Clock towers can be either freestanding or part of a church or municipal building such as a town hall. Some clock towers are not true clock towers having had their clock faces added to an already existing building...

located on Central Campus at the University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

in Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2010 census places the population at 113,934, making it the sixth largest city in Michigan. The Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 344,791 as of 2010...

at 230 South Ingalls Street. Housing a grand carillon

Carillon

A carillon is a musical instrument that is typically housed in a free-standing bell tower, or the belfry of a church or other municipal building. The instrument consists of at least 23 cast bronze, cup-shaped bells, which are played serially to play a melody, or sounded together to play a chord...

, the tower was built in 1936 as a memorial

Memorial

A memorial is an object which serves as a focus for memory of something, usually a person or an event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or art objects such as sculptures, statues or fountains, and even entire parks....

for University President Marion Leroy Burton

Marion LeRoy Burton

Marion LeRoy Burton was the second president of Smith College, serving from 1910 to 1917. He left Smith to become president of the University of Minnesota from 1917 to 1920....

(presidency: 1920–1925). The grand carillon, one of only 23 in the world, is the world’s fourth heaviest, containing 55 bell

Church bell

A church bell is a bell which is rung in a church either to signify the hour or the time for worshippers to go to church, perhaps to attend a wedding, funeral, or other service...

s and weighing a total of 43 ton

Ton

The ton is a unit of measure. It has a long history and has acquired a number of meanings and uses over the years. It is used principally as a unit of weight, and as a unit of volume. It can also be used as a measure of energy, for truck classification, or as a colloquial term.It is derived from...

s (a grand carillon has a bourdon bell — the name given to the heaviest bell in a carillon and the one that sounds the hour — that weighs at least six tons, and can sound a low 'G').

The monument

Monument

A monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, or simply as an example of historic architecture...

was constructed in 1935 and finished in 1936. It stands at 10 floors. It is located at the University of Michigan

University of Michigan

campus, and is used for housing education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

offices. The High-rise tower was designed in an interesting mixture of Art Deco

Art Deco

Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...

and art moderne architectural styles, constructed with a reinforced concrete

Reinforced concrete

Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...

shell faced with limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

over a plan 42 feet (12.8 m) square. The design was greatly influenced by Eliel Saarinen

Eliel Saarinen

Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen was a Finnish architect who became famous for his art nouveau buildings in the early years of the 20th century....

, who had submitted an earlier scheme. At the top is the 43-ton, 55-bell Baird Carillon.

While this building serves as a memorial carillon, it is primarily a conventional high-rise, contains classroom

Classroom

A classroom is a room in which teaching or learning activities can take place. Classrooms are found in educational institutions of all kinds, including public and private schools, corporations, and religious and humanitarian organizations...

s for the University of Michigan's school of music, and houses offices for the department of musicology and ethnomusicology.

The Burton Memorial Tower was designed by Albert Kahn, who also designed Clements Library, Angell Hall, and Hill Auditorium

Hill Auditorium

Hill Auditorium is the largest performance venue on the University of Michigan campus, in Ann Arbor, USA. The auditorium was named in honor of Arthur Hill , who served as a regent of the university from 1901 to 1909. He bequeathed $200,000 to the university for the construction of a venue for...

for the University of Michigan. Its carillon was donated by Michigan alumnus Charles A. Baird

Charles A. Baird

Charles A. Baird was an American football manager, university athletic director, and banker.He was the manager of the University of Michigan football team from 1893 to 1895 and the school's first athletic director from 1898 to 1909. During his time as Michigan's athletic director, he was...

, a lawyer and the first U-M athletic director, and has been christened the "Charles Baird Carillon". Baird had the bells cast in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

and gave them to the university. He also commissioned “Sunday Morning in Deep Waters”, the fountain on Ingalls Mall between Burton Tower and the Michigan League.

After University of Michigan Regent Sarah Goddard Power

Sarah Goddard Power

Sarah Goddard Power was a United States Democratic Party activist and University of Michigan Regent who committed suicide by falling out a window at the Burton Tower on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor....

committed suicide by jumping to her death from the eighth floor of Burton Tower in 1987, the structure was sightly modified, such as the addition of stops to prevent windows from opening more than a few inches.

The University of Michigan has two grand carillons, barely two miles apart. The other is housed at the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Tower

Lurie Tower

The Ann and Robert H. Lurie Tower, located on North Campus at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and housing a grand carillon -- one of only 23 in the world, but one of two on the Michigan campus -- was built in 1996 as a memorial for Michigan alumnus Robert H. Lurie.The Lurie Tower was...

on the North Campus.

The tower

Building height: 212 feet (64.6 m)
Tower specification: 41 feet (12.5 m) x 7 inches square
Floor area: 19848 square feet (1,843.9 m²)
Designer: Albert Kahn
Final cost (1936): $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

243,664.61
Recent renovation cost: $1.8 million
Construction date: 1935 to 1936
Construction materials: reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...

shell, faced with limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
Dedicated on: December 4, 1936
Dedicated to: U-M President Marion Leroy Burton
Marion LeRoy Burton
Marion LeRoy Burton was the second president of Smith College, serving from 1910 to 1917. He left Smith to become president of the University of Minnesota from 1917 to 1920....

(Presidency 1920–1925)

Charles Baird Carillon

Location: Atop the Burton Memorial Tower
World position: Tied for fourth heaviest carillon in the world
Technical Specification:
- No. of bells: 55
- Total weight 43 tons
- Largest bell: 12 tons; strikes every hour
- Smallest bell: 16.5 pounds
- Height of support: Bells hang 120 feet (36.6 m) above campus
- Others: Bells are stationary, and only the clappers move via mechanical linkage
Cast by: John Taylor Bellfoundry, in Loughborough
Loughborough
Loughborough is a town within the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England. It is the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and is home to Loughborough University...

, England, in 1936 and 1975

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.