UW’s 20-Year Plan

Border Constraints Cannot Hold Back Campus Expansion

by Paula Widholm

In 2005 the University of Wisconsin at Madison adopted a new campus master plan, which called for adding 7 million gross sq ft and 17 acres of green space over the next 20 years.

Since the plan’s adoption, approximately $600 million in construction has been completed or is under way, and $800 million worth of projects are in the planning stage.

“This was not a geographical plan but an infill plan to see our capacity for growth,” says Alan Fish, associate vice chancellor for facilities planning and management. “It’s not just about physical development. It’s about a transportation plan, an open space plan, a utility plan and a new development plan all done concurrently.”

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Unlike previous master plans that included geographical expansion, the university cannot acquire more land from residential areas along its borders, and Lake Mendota stops expansion to the north.

Converting surface parking into other uses and adding parking decks have been key components. “We had 100 acres of land being used for parking,” Fish says. “We’re gradually moving that into building space or green space.”

Other ways of adding capacity include replacing one-story buildings with three- to five-story buildings.

Some Demolition

UW-Madison has already torn down three poorly built 1960s buildings and plans to eradicate about 30 such structures because it’s cheaper than renovating them.

“They are energy hogs with worn-out mechanical systems,” Fish says. “But those built 100 years ago can be restored. These structures have better architecture, and floor-to-floor heights are generous to do historic renovations.”

Architectural consistency is also emphasized in the plan. Exterior materials are clumped into areas.

For instance, some areas have yellow brick buildings, some have red, some have limestone and other areas have Kasota stone from Minnesota.

“In those areas, we see buildings relate to one another in architectural materials,” Fish says.

The university commissioned Baltimore-based Ayres/Saint/Gross to draft the master plan. The firm revisited the 1908 master plan by the Philadelphia firm of Laird and Cret. While the 2005 plan does not resemble this original plan, it does implement one principle from it organizing around green space.

“We planned within their current property boundaries, suggesting an appropriate renovation, some selective demolition of buildings, sucking up surface parking, putting parking into decks and building academic and vocational areas,” says Luanne Greene, principal of Ayres.

Considering Transportation

One way to enhance the campus experience for the pedestrian was to prohibit vehicular traffic on the pedestrian mall during class hours, says Amelle Schultz, senior associate of the architectural firm.

The university’s transportation plan reduces the number of parking spaces by 13,000, down to about 18,000 spots to serve the approximately 42,000 students and faculty.

“A lot of folks live close and walk,” Fish says. “They use mass transit or ride bikes. Among the staff, only 50% drive alone to work, which is extremely low. It’s usually 80 to 90%.”

Rich Lynch, president of Madison-based J.H. Findorff & Son, one of the contractors working on various university projects, says he appreciates the university’s attention to infrastructure with the new power plant, storm-sewer system and roadways.

“The current master plan is a real evolution of intelligent preplanning for the future,” Lynch says. “That was lacking in the past. They’ve taken the time to look at the whole campus in long-term needs and priorities.

“In prior years, buildings were built selfishly with their own parking and their own utilities. Now there’s a sharing of facilities. They’re using density of parking more and being more strategic in where facilities go.”

As part of the university’s major utility overhaul, a natural gas-fired cogeneration plant was opened two years ago to heat and cool the campus. Now the university is seeking to replace a 1950s-era coal-burning power plant with a plant that would use biomass fuels instead, Fish says.

“Other big moves included moving westward with the academic campus building, having a medically oriented campus by the hospital and reinvesting in the urban campus and how it connects to city of Madison,” Greene says.

Current Major Projects

Some major projects under way that reflect those moves include the University Square project that adjoins the East Campus Pedestrian Mall and the Interdisciplinary Research Center near UW Hospital and Clinics.

The $132 million University Square project connects to the city of Madison and includes two floors of shops, restaurants and other businesses; 420 parking stalls; a nine-story tower housing UW-Madison functions such as the bursar’s office, registrar and a student health center; and an 11-story tower with 359 apartments.

The $158 million first phase of UW-Madison’s Interdisciplinary Research Complex is also under way. The eight-story tower will house the Paul P. Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center and will unite experts in different medical specialties to work together on cancer research. Two floors of the second tower, also in the current phase, will house research animals.

In January, Findorff Mortenson, a joint venture of J.H. Findorff & Son and M.A. Mortenson of Minneapolis, was selected to build the $150 million, 400,000-sq-ft Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and the Morgridge Institute for Research. Construction will begin in May.

To help pay for these research facilities, UW-Madison in 2006 received more than $900 million in research grants, the most federal science/engineering funding of any public university and second only to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

The next large project on the drawing board is the building of a new south campus student union and the restoration and renovation of Memorial Union. Demolition and construction at Union South is slated to begin in early 2009.

To keep the brisk construction pace going, the university needs to keep raising a lot of money. About 70% of the financing comes from donor gifts, federal grants, program revenue from university organizations, student fees and income from operations. The remainder comes from the state of Wisconsin.

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