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Posted on Sun, Jun 9, 2013 : 5:55 a.m.

Family makes a home in University of Michigan's Northwood Apartments

By Kellie Woodhouse

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Jonathan and Anne Awori's three-bedroom townhouse-style apartment in University of Michigan's aging Northwood Housing community is far from luxury, but it fits the couple's needs.

The couple moved from Kentucky and into the apartment two years ago when Jonathan matriculated into U-M's medical school. They live in it with their two sons, Cameron, 5, and Christian, 10, who play with the dozens of other children that live in the complex.

AnnArbor.com report on graduate student housing

Northwood housing is one of two on-campus housing communities for graduate students and the only one that accommodates children.

As U-M prepares for a new 600-bed dormitory that will offer graduate students a vastly new on-campus living experience —replete with a solarium, commissary and collaborative spaces— AnnArbor.com took a tour of the Aworis' home to get a sense of existing graduate student housing at U-M.

One thousand graduate students, many with their families, live in Northwoods IV and V, which were built in 1969 and 1972. Another 240 law students can fit into the Lawyers Club, which will reopen this fall after a $39 million renovation. The Lawyers Club, however, is limited to single law students. Like the Lawyers Club, U-M's proposed dormitory will likely also be limited to single students.

A one-bedroom apartment in Northwoods can cost up to $970 a month and a three-bedroom townhouse can cost up to $1,250.

"It's very convenient," Anne Awori said of her Northwood apartment.

Her bedroom window looks out at her children's bus stop and her husband is able to take a U-M bus to the hospital. She says the there's a mix of international students and their families living in the complex and everyone's kids play together often.

"When you move here and you're new, they immediately make friends," she said of her children. "By the second day they were around playing... It's so communal that everybody's out there."

Kellie Woodhouse covers higher education for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at kelliewoodhouse@annarbor.com or 734-623-4602 and follow her on twitter.

Comments

UloveM

Mon, Jun 10, 2013 : 2:55 a.m.

Rooms in Northwood Apartments are tiny.

Arborcomment

Sun, Jun 9, 2013 : 4:29 p.m.

Lived there with my parents while my mother got her grad degree. Much newer back then of course. A great place to be. Tons of kids, all about the same age. International flavor, playgrounds, even a skating rink for a couple of years. They appear to have aged well. Contrasting with the grad-dorm latte shop... The last "other" grad type housing was University Terrace near the hospital. Torn down to make way for the new Children's Hospital. They dated to the early sixties and lived there as a student in '85. They were due to go, but served their purpose - without a "solarium"...

JimmyD

Sun, Jun 9, 2013 : 10:59 a.m.

Nice counter-part article to that proposed 600 bed facility. It does seem that it's impacting two different parts of the demographic mix. That new facility sounds focused on single grad students, doesn't it?

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