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Domino's Farms
Domino's Farms is an office park in Ann Arbor Charter Township, Michigan, centered around a four-story, 1⁄2-mile-long (0.80 km), Prairie style groundscraper known as the "Prairie House". Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan commissioned the complex in the early 1980s to serve as the company's headquarters, and Monaghan remains the owner of the complex after selling his stake in Domino's in 1998. The complex was designed by Gunnar Birkerts in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright, whom Monaghan admired.
Construction began in 1984, and the sixth and final phase of the Prairie House was fully completed in 2005. Michigan Medicine is a major tenant of the complex, which also includes test kitchens for Domino's and a petting zoo.
Early concepts for the approximately 300-acre (120 ha) site, located just east of the Ann Arbor city limits, included a circular layout for the campus and a 30-story skyscraper. These plans were refined into the linear configuration that was eventually built. A scale model of the unbuilt skyscraper, nicknamed the "Leaning Tower of Pizza," stands in a field on the west side of the campus. Another unbuilt concept for Domino's Farms included a campus of Ave Maria University, a Catholic university founded by Monaghan that instead moved to Collier County, Florida, in the mid-2000s.
Monaghan gained an admiration for Wright at the age of 12, when he checked out a book about Wright from a public library in Traverse City. Wright died in 1959, and Monaghan started a collection of furnishings and parts from demolished Wright buildings in the late 1970s. By 1990, the collection was valued at $20 million, with 350 items.
Monaghan entered the pizza business when he and his brother bought a pizzeria in Ypsilanti in 1960. Monaghan bought out the entire business shortly afterwards, refocused it on delivery, and renamed it Domino's Pizza. The company began expanding by franchising in 1967, and 44 stores were in operation by 1969. The company grew rapidly, and narrowly avoided bankruptcy before growing to over 1,100 stores in 1983. Domino's moved its corporate headquarters multiple times due to its rapid growth, eventually settling on a site on Green Road on the northeast side of Ann Arbor.
As Domino's grew in size, Monaghan developed plans for a new headquarters near Ann Arbor. Initially, Monaghan wanted to construct a skyscraper called the Golden Beacon, a 56-story design that was proposed for a site in Chicago but never built. Monaghan contacted Taliesin Associated Architects, the firm operated by former Wright associates who held the rights to many of his designs, but the parties were unable to reach an agreement. A 1988 analysis in The New York Times suspected that the disagreement was not a business conflict, but a matter of passion, commenting that the agreement may have failed because "each party may have felt specially imbued with the great architect's spirit".
Monaghan bought a large plot of land in Ann Arbor Charter Township in 1983. The parcel of land had been farmed by the Zeeb family for decades, and was close to the amenities of Ann Arbor while still retaining a semi-rural setting. The initial land purchase excluded the house occupied since 1921 by longtime resident Florence Zeeb. Monaghan's vision for the property included a working farm on part of the land, evoking Ann Arbor's historic Cobblestone Farm.
Gunnar Birkerts designed the complex in the style of Wright, who died in 1959. Monaghan admired Wright's style, and requested that Birkerts utilize six Wright-inspired design elements in his design: "low-slung buildings, overhangs, brick, copper, wood, and berms". Birkerts found the design process difficult, commenting in 1994 that "[i]n terms of my synthesizing process, the headquarters for Domino's was the most difficult project of my life because I had to work with someone else's architecture."
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Domino's Farms
Domino's Farms is an office park in Ann Arbor Charter Township, Michigan, centered around a four-story, 1⁄2-mile-long (0.80 km), Prairie style groundscraper known as the "Prairie House". Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan commissioned the complex in the early 1980s to serve as the company's headquarters, and Monaghan remains the owner of the complex after selling his stake in Domino's in 1998. The complex was designed by Gunnar Birkerts in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright, whom Monaghan admired.
Construction began in 1984, and the sixth and final phase of the Prairie House was fully completed in 2005. Michigan Medicine is a major tenant of the complex, which also includes test kitchens for Domino's and a petting zoo.
Early concepts for the approximately 300-acre (120 ha) site, located just east of the Ann Arbor city limits, included a circular layout for the campus and a 30-story skyscraper. These plans were refined into the linear configuration that was eventually built. A scale model of the unbuilt skyscraper, nicknamed the "Leaning Tower of Pizza," stands in a field on the west side of the campus. Another unbuilt concept for Domino's Farms included a campus of Ave Maria University, a Catholic university founded by Monaghan that instead moved to Collier County, Florida, in the mid-2000s.
Monaghan gained an admiration for Wright at the age of 12, when he checked out a book about Wright from a public library in Traverse City. Wright died in 1959, and Monaghan started a collection of furnishings and parts from demolished Wright buildings in the late 1970s. By 1990, the collection was valued at $20 million, with 350 items.
Monaghan entered the pizza business when he and his brother bought a pizzeria in Ypsilanti in 1960. Monaghan bought out the entire business shortly afterwards, refocused it on delivery, and renamed it Domino's Pizza. The company began expanding by franchising in 1967, and 44 stores were in operation by 1969. The company grew rapidly, and narrowly avoided bankruptcy before growing to over 1,100 stores in 1983. Domino's moved its corporate headquarters multiple times due to its rapid growth, eventually settling on a site on Green Road on the northeast side of Ann Arbor.
As Domino's grew in size, Monaghan developed plans for a new headquarters near Ann Arbor. Initially, Monaghan wanted to construct a skyscraper called the Golden Beacon, a 56-story design that was proposed for a site in Chicago but never built. Monaghan contacted Taliesin Associated Architects, the firm operated by former Wright associates who held the rights to many of his designs, but the parties were unable to reach an agreement. A 1988 analysis in The New York Times suspected that the disagreement was not a business conflict, but a matter of passion, commenting that the agreement may have failed because "each party may have felt specially imbued with the great architect's spirit".
Monaghan bought a large plot of land in Ann Arbor Charter Township in 1983. The parcel of land had been farmed by the Zeeb family for decades, and was close to the amenities of Ann Arbor while still retaining a semi-rural setting. The initial land purchase excluded the house occupied since 1921 by longtime resident Florence Zeeb. Monaghan's vision for the property included a working farm on part of the land, evoking Ann Arbor's historic Cobblestone Farm.
Gunnar Birkerts designed the complex in the style of Wright, who died in 1959. Monaghan admired Wright's style, and requested that Birkerts utilize six Wright-inspired design elements in his design: "low-slung buildings, overhangs, brick, copper, wood, and berms". Birkerts found the design process difficult, commenting in 1994 that "[i]n terms of my synthesizing process, the headquarters for Domino's was the most difficult project of my life because I had to work with someone else's architecture."
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