Project Files
The Project Files series covers Frank's work as owner of Preservation / Urban Design / Incorporated (P/UD/I) from 1975 to 1984 and later as an FAIA architect. The projects have been arranged alphabetically, reflecting the original order of the material. The series contains paper records supplemented with architectural drawings. (The project files for Orchestra Hall, Crossroads Village and the Smithsonian Institution Arts and Industries Building are each listed in their own, separate series.) In some instances, only architectural drawings or only paper files remain. Occasionally it was necessary to sketch how a location looked during different time periods, for example, the Detroit People Mover architectural drawings. The majority of architectural drawings are blue line prints, though there are a few original pencil and ink on mylar drawings. The paper files also may contain historic background materials. Other ephemera include maps, photographs, photographic negatives, and slides. The series contains two subseries: Saline Office (8.25 feet, 48 tubes) and Detroit Office (16 feet, 27 tubes). The Saline Office subseries represents an earlier accession, with materials originating from Frank's office in Saline, Michigan. The Detroit Office subseries covers the project files housed in Frank's office in Detroit, Michigan. There are some projects, which overlap between the two subseries. For example, the Saline Office subseries contains the architectural drawings for Ann Arbor Westside Neighborhood project, while the Detroit Office subseries contains the project's corresponding written plan.
Michigan project files include: Albion Downtown Study, Applewood Estate in Flint, Central City Historic Survey in Grand Rapids, the Detroit People Mover, The Ford Fair Lane Building (now owned by the University of Michigan at Dearborn), the residences of Ann Arbor's Inter-Cooperative Council (or I.C.C.), Kalamazoo Depot and Water Tower Restoration, Lenawee County Museum, Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, Old City Hall of Ypsilanti, St. Mary's Church of Detroit, and a restoration of the Woodward East section of Detroit. There are also architectural drawings of many Mackinac Island State Park structures. The paper records of the Fort Wilkins restoration project contain a wealth of historical information.
Items in this series from outside of Michigan include architectural drawings of the Thomas Jefferson Building at the Library of Congress and Colonial Williamsburg.
Richard Frank's renovation of the Dart residence in Okemos and Turner-Dodge House of Lansing provide a look at the historic restoration of residential homes, while a sampling of commercial projects include Goodyears Interiors and Rider's Hobby Shop of Ann Arbor and the South Bank Restaurant of Manistee.