Michigan State University St. Andrews in Midland, MI is the current occupant of what was once the Michigan Molecular Institute (MMI) building and research facility located at 1910 West St. Andrews Road. MMI was initially known as Midland Macromolecular Institute which officially opened in the fall of 1972. The general intent of the formation of MMI was to provide for a research center located in mid-Michigan that would foster advanced technologies in polymer science that did not fall under the more limited time horizon of the “abominable no-men” of large local commercially driven companies.
An early view of the rotunda, a gathering place for scientific discussion, inside MSU St. Andrews, formerly MMI.
Funded principally by four community foundations, construction of the building commenced in the spring of 1970 that was designed by the famous Midlander architect Alden B. Dow (1904 to 1983), who had apprenticed with Frank Lloyd Wright in 1933.
Dow employed a synergistic use of new materials, organic room arrangements, contemporary art and colors in his architectural designs. The MMI building strongly reflects this high level of creativity. Novel for a research facility the unusual midcentury design eschewed the usual box-like layout, but rather featured an arrangement in which laboratories and offices open into common areas to foster creative interaction between colleagues.
Over the next 43 years MMI fostered research in areas of polymer science ranging from polymer processing and composites, catalysis, dendrimers and hyperbranched polymers, liquid crystalline polymers, fuel cells, and sensors. Congruent with an educational and academic mission of MMI, several international conferences were sponsored and many graduate degrees awarded in collaboration with midwestern universities. Greatly increased difficulties in obtaining research grants and contract research projects and changing times, however, finally forced the closure of MMI in 2015.
The Michigan State University Office of Research and Innovation has resided in this home of research since 2016. Having been altered over the years past to accommodate a greatly expanded number of occupants, the building has been restored to be more congruent with fidelity to its original intent under the aegis of MSU during the last decade. Current scientific endeavors include STEM and 4H educational programs for middle and high school students, leading-edge contract research in small molecule chemistry, polymer chemistry and physics, and in value chain optimization by the Axia Institute. In keeping with a tradition started nearly a half century ago in the spirit of MMI in its heyday, the Turner Alfrey Visiting Professor event is held annually in the spring centered around lectures by the most prominent awardees, including a Nobel Prize winner, with the purpose of drawing scientists from local companies and universities out of their daily routines to meet and exchange ideas.
The unique building footprint was purposefully designed to portray a maple leaf, pulling from nature in the mid-century modern design.