A. Alfred Taubman

A. Alfred Taubman is our college’s namesake and largest donor. As one of America’s most successful entrepreneurs, he was recognized as a pioneer and visionary in America’s shopping center industry and was active in a wide range of business, civic, cultural, and educational activities around the world.

In 1999, Mr. Taubman donated $30 million to the College of Architecture and Urban Planning – one of the largest gifts in the history of the University of Michigan and the largest ever to a school of architecture at the time. In recognition of this significant gift, the college was renamed in his honor.

In 2015, his gift of $12.5 million brought us all together to break ground on the A. Alfred Taubman Wing of our building. The addition built in Mr. Taubman’s name is not just about creating more space, but rather it’s about further solidifying the amazing legacy of architecture and planning at the University of Michigan.

From our start as one of the first universities to offer courses in architecture way back in 1876 to being one of the first in the country to offer a graduate program in urban planning in 1946 to the robust programs of study in architecture and planning that we offer today, we have long been at the forefront of our respective fields. It is transformational gifts like Mr. Taubman’s that will keep us there for years to come.

Mr. Taubman’s gifts of vision, generosity, and creative spirit continue to empower the next generation of designers and planners.

Portrait of A Alfred Taubman wearing a blue U-M Taubman College hat.