UW-Madison

Building Boom Adds
Density, Preserves History

by Paula Widholm

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is undergoing a building boom that hasn't been seen since the 1960s, and that's making a lot of architects and contractors around Madison happy, says Alan Fish, associate vice chancellor for facilities planning and management at the university.

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"One of the reasons we're so active is because we've been successful in raising funds," Fish says.

He's talking about nearly $600 million in construction projects on 10 major projects and another $700 million of construction projects in the design or planning stage.

Rather than relying on state tax dollars, 70% of the financing is coming from donor gifts, federal grants, program revenue from university organizations, student fees and income from operations.

"To stay competitive, we have to be more creative financially to keep up with the facility improvements everyone else is doing," Fish says.

UW-Madison, like many campuses across the country, has found that its 100-year-old buildings have held up quite well. "We can renovate those to give them another 100 years of life," Fish says.

Many of these buildings are also getting modern additions clothed in century-old-looking facades to match. The university has completed four such projects and has six more in the hopper.

By renovating the old buildings, the university cuts development costs in half, and "we save our history," Fish says.

Ironically, the wrecking ball is falling on buildings constructed in the 1960s.

"Across higher education, those are the buildings that are structurally bad with bad architecture," Fish says. "They're not sustainable, and it's less expensive to tear them down and replace them."

For new buildings on campus, "we're trying to blend them in architecturally and build 100-year-old structures and exteriors, but with 40-year interiors,"

Fish adds. "This is a hybrid for the 21st Century. We're anticipating the need to remodel and renovate for changing functions and changing technology in the shorter term."

Building Up, Not Out

The master plan for the UW-Madison campus, which was finished last year with the help of Baltimore-based Ayres/Saint/Gross, focuses on infill development.

The university has 19 million sq ft and plans to add 7 million sq ft over the next 20 years without buying new land. About 20 to 30 inefficient, one-story buildings will be torn down to make way for multilevel buildings. Also, the plan identified surface-level parking lots that will become sites for new building development or will be freed up for new green space.

The campus master plan designates design neighborhoods. New buildings' exteriors match their surroundings, which range from native limestone, red brick, urban precast and red tile roofs.

To prepare for the higher density, plans were also developed to deal with utilities, transportation and open space.

The transportation plan is multimodal. Parking capacity will remain at 13,000 by building more ramps. However, to reduce drivers on campus, there will be more pedestrian areas, bike lanes, commuter rail and an active bus system.

The open space plan provides for a significant amount of natural areas, 4 mi of lakeshore on campus and 100 acres of nature preserve.

University Square

The 11-story, 1.1 million-sq-ft University Square project is the result of a unique private-public partnership between Executive Management Inc. of Madison and the university. It includes 350 apartments; 250,000 sq ft of university, student and health service offices; 140,000 sq ft of retail space; and 420 ramp and underground parking spots.

"At University Square, the university owns 20% of the land," Fish says. "That small sliver of land was never enough to build our student services on. We believe the private retail is going to be a great amenity for students, faculty and staff."

EMI owns the underground parking and two levels of retail. Above this base are two towers. One 11-story tower contains privately leased apartments.

The other, owned by the university, has nine floors of office space. The UW portion of the $132 million project is $56.9 million.

After excavation and installation of a retention system around the perimeter of this extremely tight downtown site, concrete pours began for the enormous frame.

Jeff McLean, senior project manager for Madison-based J.H. Findorff & Son Inc., the construction manager, estimates the project will use about 58,000 cu yds of concrete.

Julie Grove, project manager for the university, says University Square will be the "place to be and be seen." More than 600 students can come together there to work in groups, hang out in lounges, use meeting rooms or visit the full dining area.

"There are tall ceilings, and it's flexible in terms of how you can organize it," Grove says. "There will be a green roof patio above a portion of the retail floors."

The project began June 1. The retail and housing portion is scheduled to be complete by May 2008. The university tower is set to open Dec. 1, 2008.

As a developer-driven project, University Square's construction is under more cost scrutiny and therefore will not be a traditional 75- or 100-year campus building. The exterior is precast with half-brick embedded into it.

Grainger Hall Addition

The $40.5 million, four-story addition to Grainger Hall will house the MBA programs of the School of Business. The addition began in May and is scheduled to be complete by May 2008.

"The school of business is changing the way it teaches graduates," Grove says.

"In academic architecture, it's really the program that defines the building."

Instead of general classes, the addition will accommodate 11 "centers of excellence" that facilitate specialized instruction through more office space and breakout and conference rooms.

Currently, the existing 330,000-sq-ft Grainger Hall serves both undergrads and grads. Upon completion, the grad students will move into the 160,000-sq-ft addition, and the undergraduates will remain in the existing building.

The addition's precast exterior matches the existing building. The project architect, Milwaukee-based Zimmerman Architectural Studios Inc., also designed the original building, which opened in 1993.

A circular rotunda calls attention to the business school on the highly visible, well-traveled corner. "The new entry space has an elegant, corporate feel that is slightly more upscale than the existing Grainger Hall, with wood, terrazzo floors and some two-story spaces with skylights," Grove says.

While the business school benefits from its high-profile spot, the site is tight and the addition fills up the remaining land, Grove says.

Neenah, Wis.-based Miron Construction Co. Inc., the general contractor, worked with the city on some lane closures and shifted the concrete pours to nighttime.

Mechanical Engineering Addition

A 54,000-sq-ft, five-story addition as well as a major renovation of the 126,000-sq-ft 1920s Mechanical Engineering building is under way to serve about 700 undergraduates and 400 grad students.

Renovation work on the existing building includes preserving the historical façade; replacing windows, fume hoods, HVAC exhaust and electrical systems; and improving accessibility. The new building has a limestone exterior that matches the existing architecture.

In addition to several modern research laboratories, classrooms and lecture halls, an atrium will provide a central gathering place.

The $41 million project started in 2005 and is scheduled to be complete by June 1.

"Classes are still continuing in the new portion while we're renovating the old," says Darus Springler, senior project manager for Miron, also the GC on the engineering building project.

The existing building is in a horseshoe shape and the new one was built within that horseshoe. Classes moved into the new building last fall. Renovation of the existing building began in September.