ANN ARBOR—The University of Michigan Board of Regents today approved schematic designs for construction that will expand instructional space at the University’s top-ranked Law School for the first time since the school’s main classroom building opened in 1933.

The regents’ vote approved designs by Hartman-Cox Architects of Washington, D.C., working in association with Michigan-based Integrated Design Solutions. The centerpiece of the project is a four-story instructional and administrative building?complementary to the Collegiate Gothic style of the iconic Law Quad?to be built just across Monroe Street, south of the existing buildings. But also integral to the project will be a new Law School Commons area, which will rise in an unused grassy area east of Hutchins Hall and south of the Legal Research Building.

“The buildings of Michigan’s Law Quad are among the most distinguished on any American college campus, and symbolize the unique environment we provide for legal education,” said U-M President Mary Sue Coleman. “This impressive expansion builds upon that legacy as we work to educate the next generation of legal experts.”

The new instructional building will add classrooms and clinical spaces suited to the changed requirements of a top legal education, which have evolved considerably since Hutchins Hall opened on the Law Quad in 1933. Today’s law students take more small classes, have much more interaction with each other and with actual clients in supervised clinical settings, and draw heavily on such technologies as wireless networks. The new instructional building will be designed to meet all of those needs, in addition to providing more space for a student body that has more than doubled—and a law faculty that has more than quadrupled?since the last time the Law School added classroom space.

The Law School Commons, a two-story, glass-roofed center for student life including group study spaces, gathering spots, and a caf