The
monument was constructed in 1935 and finished in 1936. It stands at 192 feet, with the floor of the bell chamber at 120 feet from the ground. It is located at the
University of Michigan campus, and is used for housing
education offices. The
high-rise tower was designed in an interesting mixture of
Art Deco and
art moderne architectural styles, constructed with a
reinforced concrete shell faced with
limestone over a plan square. The design was greatly influenced by
Eliel Saarinen, who had submitted an earlier scheme. At the top is the 43-ton, 53-bell
Baird Carillon. The tower chimes the
Westminster Quarters every quarter hour in the key of E-flat. While this building houses a memorial carillon, it is primarily a conventional high-rise, contains
classrooms for the University of Michigan's school of music, and houses offices for the departments of musicology, ethnomusicology, musical theatre and for the
University Musical Society. The Burton Memorial Tower was designed by
Albert Kahn, who also designed the
William L. Clements Library,
Angell Hall, and
Hill Auditorium for the University of Michigan. Its carillon was donated by Michigan alumnus
Charles A. Baird, a lawyer and the first U-M athletic director, and has been christened the "Charles Baird Carillon". Baird had the bells cast in
England and gave them to the university. He also commissioned “Sunday Morning in Deep Waters”, the fountain on Ingalls Mall between Burton Tower and the
Michigan League. After University of Michigan Regent
Sarah Goddard Power committed suicide by jumping to her death from the eighth floor of Burton Tower in 1987, slight modifications were made to the structure, such as the addition of stops to prevent windows from opening more than a few inches. The University of Michigan campus has two of only twenty-three grand carillons in the world, barely two miles apart. The other is housed at the Ann and Robert H.
Lurie Tower on the North Campus. On April 8, 2017, in celebration of the university's bicentennial, the tower was illuminated in maize and blue, the university's colors. The carillon and spire can also be lit in other colors by the LED illumination system installed for the bicentennial. File:Under a Bell in the Charles Baird Carillon, Burton Memorial Tower (Ann Arbor, MI).jpg|alt=Looking up into a large greenish bell with a grey clapper|Upwards view into a middle-register bell of the Charles Baird Carillon File:Wall-Mounted Bell Clapper, Burton Tower (Ann Arbor, MI).jpg|alt=Close-up of large grey bell clapper|The clapper of one of the largest bells in the Charles Baird Carillon File:Burton Memorial Tower (2010).jpg|alt=Burton Tower against a blue sky with trees just beginning to turn autumn colors. Students are walking in the foreground|View of Burton Memorial Tower from N. University Avenue File:BurtonTowerUofM.jpg|alt=Photograph showing the entire unobstructed facade of Burton Memorial Tower|Burton Memorial Tower File:Burton Memorial Tower.jpg|alt=Bell chamber illuminated in purple light, as viewed from the ground|The bicentennial illumination system lights up the tenth floor belfry ==Statistics==