West Hall was first opened in 1960 on Northern Michigan University’s campus, and for 57 years it housed NMU’s Students, but in the spring of 2017, it closed its doors as a residence hall.
In the fall of 2021, NMU made a decision to demolish two of its old residence halls, West and Gries Hall. Crews have been working on gutting the building since the early spring of 2022, and their demolition is set to wrap up in June.
Gries Hall currently houses multiple academic departments that must be relocated, the is currently no schedule for the teardown of Gries Hall.
Current and former students gathered on May 19th to swap stories from their time in the hall for an event hosted by Liana Maitland and Rebecca Fournier, two Community Advisors at NMU.
There are no long-term plans for the space, though students expressed their opinions on what they’d like to see done with the space, some say more parking, upper graduate housing, or even a wild life green space.