Building boom

Campus readies for flurry of construction projects

By Mike Rindo

Concrete is pumped up to the fourth floor of the student center to complete one of the building's last decks.

Karen Stuber watched through her UW-Eau Claire office window as a towering crane deftly added a piece of steel to the frame of the new W.R. Davies Student Center building.

"I am just amazed at how every day you look out there and you see something new and can actually see the building taking shape," she said.

For Stuber, University Centers events services coordinator, construction of the new student center is historically and personally meaningful. She has worked in the current Davies Center for more than 40 years and has staged tens of thousands of events there, including every Viennese Ball.

"It's going to be fantastic to see it all come together and open the doors, but it is going to be hard to watch this building come down," she said.

Construction of the new student center began in February, with completion scheduled for summer 2012. It is being built in the former green space south of the current Davies Center. Once the W.R. Davies Student Center is completed, the old W.R. Davies University Center will be razed to create a new campus green space.

The new student center is the first of several major building projects scheduled on the UW-Eau Claire campus during the next two years, with more planned over the next two decades. Approved projects include the $48.8 million W.R. Davies Student Center; the $44.5 million Education Building, which will replace the obsolete Brewer Hall/Campus School complex; and a $3.8 million Children's Center. (See related Children's Center update at end of story.)

"Our campus is entering the most ambitious and extensive period of new building since the 1960s and '70s — we have nearly $100 million in projects either under way or in final planning stages, with more projects in the initial planning process," Chancellor Brian Levin-Stankevich said.

Making facilities improvements a priority
Upon his arrival on campus in June 2006, Levin-Stankevich identified the need to renovate or replace aging university buildings, many of which date from the early 1950s to the early 1970s. The first priority was a new student center.

"During one of my first meetings with student leaders, they asked for my help to achieve their goal of creating a student center to better serve the campus community," Levin-Stankevich said.

For seven years students had been studying various options for expansion, renovation or replacement of Davies Center. Levin-Stankevich successfully steered the project through the state approval process. (Even though student segregated fees are funding the entire cost of construction and no tax dollars are being used, the campus had to secure bonding in the 2007-09 state budget.)

With bonding in place, planning for the project began. Beth Hellwig, vice chancellor for student affairs, chaired the Davies Center Redevelopment Committee, which included students, faculty and staff. Early on, it was determined that renovation and expansion of the current Davies Center was not viable and that a new building would be the best option.

According to Hellwig, the vision of the committee was to create a center that would serve as a hub of student and campus life.

"While many of us may love the characteristics of the current Davies Center, we are in need of a new facility that can reflect the amazing programs and services that are offered to our university community," Hellwig said.

From the beginning of the design process, student involvement was paramount, as was the principle of sustainability.

"We are committed to sustainability and have heard from our students how important it is to them," Hellwig said. "We have designed a green roof and have incorporated solar panels into the project. We also have worked with the interior design to make sure that we are conscientious about the materials we are using in the paint, floor treatments and woods."

Highlights of the new building include much larger gathering spaces for ballrooms, The Cabin and the Blugold Room. The building will feature an expansive food court and campus "living room" where students, faculty and staff can informally gather. A substantially enlarged student organizations space, bookstore and multipurpose theater and the construction of numerous meeting rooms will better accommodate the many activities taking place in the new building.

Immediate past student body presidents Dylan Jambrek, Michael Umhoefer and Timothy Lauer served on the building committee and were extensively involved in the design process.

"The new Davies Center is going to provide students with a beautiful and more functional place to study, socialize and live," Jambrek said. "This construction project represents the beginning of a new era for UW-Eau Claire by expanding opportunities for our students on the most beautiful campus in Wisconsin."

The new student center also honors the university's past. The Alumni Room and The Cabin will offer views of the historic Council Oak tree site, which tradition says served as an important gathering place for American Indians and is now prominently featured on the university's seal. Stained glass, wooden panels, doors and fixtures from the Dulany mansion will be transferred from the current Davies Center to the new building. It was announced at the March groundbreaking ceremony that the new center, like the building it will replace, is to be named after the university's second president, William R. Davies, who served the institution from 1941-59.

When the new center is completed and the existing Davies Center is torn down, the resulting green space will include an outdoor amphitheater, which will more prominently incorporate Little Niagara Creek into the campus landscape.

Education Building gets the OK
The recently enacted 2011-13 state budget includes funding for construction of a new Education Building. It will be located between Schneider Hall and Zorn Arena. Campus School will be razed to make way for the building, and the Children's Center currently housed in Campus School will be relocated.

This is the first new campus building to be fully funded with state tax dollars in 30 years. The Human Sciences and Services building (originally called the Allied Health building) on Water Street, constructed in 1982, was the last.

The Education Building will house the College of Education and Human Sciences administrative units; significant classroom space; the departments of education studies, English, foreign languages and special education; and select student support services, including Services for Students with Disabilities, the Student Success Center (providing writing, math and other academic support) and the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

According to Gail Scukanec, dean of the College of Education and Human Sciences and chair of the Education Building Committee, the building is designed to meet the academic needs of the campus now and for years to come.

"It will be a very different kind of building for our campus," Scukanec said. "Along with housing academic units, classrooms and student success areas, the building is really being designed to serve today's students. There will be a cyber café and numerous areas for students to work in small groups. The building will have the infrastructure to support the technological needs of the future."

The project has been approved to proceed to full design and construction. The current timeline calls for construction to begin in spring 2012 with completion in fall 2013.

Planning for the future
In addition to current projects, UW-Eau Claire is planning for future facilities improvements. The 20-year Campus Master Plan is scheduled to be finalized this fall.

The Campus Master Plan is the foundation for future facilities and physical plant development in support of the university's strategic goal of becoming the premier undergraduate learning community in the Upper Midwest.

It outlines development of new academic and student life facilities, demolition of obsolete buildings, renovation of existing facilities, infrastructure and transportation improvements, acquisition of additional land, and open-space preservation and enhancements. The plan also recognizes the importance of strengthening existing facilities partnerships with the greater Eau Claire community in the form of shared facilities that could be constructed at off-campus locations.

"For the past year, we have been using the theme 'Excellence is always under construction' as a way to describe how we are striving to improve the UW-Eau Claire experience," Levin-Stankevich said. "Current projects, along with our plans for the future, are positive signs that we are bringing our buildings and facilities up to the level of the quality of the teaching and learning that go on inside them."

Mike Rindo is executive director of University Communications at UW-Eau Claire.

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Children's Center receives new home

The Children's Center project, originally scheduled to begin in late May or early June, was delayed when bids for the project exceeded the $3.8 million budget. A recent development, however, has cleared the way for the Children's Center to receive a new home.

The Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict have announced the sale of St. Bede Monastery to a subsidiary of the UW-Eau Claire Foundation, and the first intended use of St. Bede's by the university is as the relocation site for the current Children's Center.

The monastery property includes 112 mostly wooded acres in the Town of Washington and three building complexes totaling approximately 80,000 square feet. It is located three miles south of the UW-Eau Claire campus. The sale price was $1 million.

In announcing the sale, Sister Michaela Hedican, prioress of the Benedictine order, said the sisters were pleased to be able to sell St. Bede's to a foundation whose mission is to support UW-Eau Claire.

Campus School, which currently houses the Children's Center, will be razed in spring 2012 to make way for the university's Education Building project. The university had been planning to build a new Children's Center next to the Human Sciences and Services building on Water Street. However, after bids for the project exceeded the budget, options for how to best proceed were explored.

Those options included redesign, value engineering and other cost-reduction measures, and off-campus relocation sites. According to Children's Center Building Committee Chair Jodi Thesing-Ritter, several facilities that would be suitable for the Children's Center were evaluated, and St. Bede's was identified as the preferred option.

A number of issues must be resolved before relocation of the Children's Center to St. Bede's is finalized: Renovations must be completed to meet current code and licensing requirements; zoning permits must be obtained; and a use agreement between the Foundation, university, state and Children's Center must be approved. The intent is to complete all of these tasks before the Children's Center's current space in Campus School must be vacated.

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Watch us grow!

To view a time-lapse video of the new Davies Student Center under construction, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kkbvg88zpv4.