Peter Woolf doesn't consider himself a developer, but everything else about his background and interests has led him to become just that. The former University of Michigan chemical engineering faculty member, human
health-based software entrepreneur, as well as dance and movement hobbyist has proposed plans for an energy-efficient, 12,104-square foot movement and performance studio on N. Main called Moving on Main.
"My goal is less to create a building as a pile of bricks, but instead to create a symbiotic organism that works to connect and nourish the people that occupy it," says Woolf. "Some of this symbiosis involves environmental stewardship."
Woolf's goal is for the building to produce all of its own electricity, and possibly use the rainwater as well. It will be built with materials that have "lower embodied energy," are recycled and recyclable. The Movement on Main business will include both large and small spaces for dance, circus arts, classes, lectures, micro-cinema, weddings and performance on the first floor. The second will include space massage and spa-type uses. Hostel space will also be included.
Woolf envisions such activities taking place Moving on Main as meditation, tango lessons, Japanese-style baths and massage.
"There is no single place in Ann Arbor — or anywhere for that matter — where you can do all of this," he says, "so we are creating the space for the business."
Though the plans are just in the proposal stage, Woolf hopes for construction to begin in the spring of next year, and be complete by spring of 2016. He plans for Movement on Main to employ both eight to 12 human employees, as well as a virtual staff member named Sammi.
Source: Peter Woolf, Moving on Main
Writer: Natalie Burg
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