Joint Southeast Campus Area Committee – March meeting

The Joint Southeast Campus Area Committee’s met yesterday. The main presentation was by a group of representatives from the St. Paul Catholic Center.  The Center previously proposed building a new 14-story building on their current site on Library Mall. Those plans were rejected by the City of Madison because they violated the height restrictions for that portion of State Street. The Center is now proposing a scaled-down version of its original plan. This new plan doesn’t include student housing and will be 6-8 stories.

Representatives from St. Paul’s focused their presentation on the footprint and loading docks of the new facility. They wanted to demonstrate the need for a fire lane on State Street in front of the building. Representatives from the University seemed open to this request. Nothing was voted on or approved. The new plans will be presented to the City this summer. If approved then fundraising will begin. Officials expect to break ground in the next two years.

After the presentation from St. Paul’s, representatives from the University updated the committee on its current projects.

East Campus Mall – the portion under the Chazen addition will be completed by October. The rest will be completed in a couple years with the new Gordon Commons project.

Music Performance Building – this project is in the design phase. Half of the needed funds have been raised.

Memorial Union – this is also in the design phase. The first phase will focus on the Theater wing and it will start next year.

Hockey Center – breaking ground in April, the facility should be done in fall 2012.

Charter Street Plant – the natural gas facility is under construction. The biomass portion is on hold for now but it can be added in the future. The plant will stop burning coal in fall 2012.

Library Mall – phase 2 of the utility project has started.

Lake Street – construction between University and Lake Mendota will start after graduation and be completed by mid August.

Langdon Street – Lake St to Park St will be resurfaced in 2012.

State Street – Lake St to Park St will be resurfaced in 2013.

Union South – opening on April 15.

The next committee meeting is rescheduled for Monday, May 23.

January Committee meeting is cancelled

There aren’t any new agenda items for the Joint Southeast Campus Area Committee to review at this time so the meeting scheduled for January 24th was cancelled. Check back in March for updates from our next meeting.

Joe Klosterman

Joint Southeast Campus Area Committee – November meeting

The Joint Southeast Campus Area Committee’s November meeting was earlier today. Here is an update of the projects that we discussed:

East Campus Utilities
- The project was slowed by problems with the underground piping system
- A small portion of work remains in front of the Red Gym and Science Hall
- Langdon St. is expected to remain a 1-way through Thanksgiving

Charter Street Plant
- The first phase of the project, which includes construction of the natural gas burning portion of the plant, will continue on schedule. Ground will be broken in a couple months.
- Governor-elect Walker is concerned with the extra capital costs of using biomass so phases 2 and 3 are expected to face more review after the first of the year when the new administration takes office

Chazen Museum
- The project is on schedule, the exterior will be completed before winter
- The portion of East Campus Mall that connects Library Mall to University Ave. will be completed next summer

Music Performance Facility
- The University is searching for an architect to prepare a design
- $20 million has been raised, another $20 million is needed
- The sale of Brother’s has been negotiated and it will close by the end of August 2011. At that time demolition of the entire block will proceed and a construction will start once enough funds are secured.

Gordon Commons
- The design and approval phases are done
- Construction of the first phase will start this spring, the entire project will be completed about 3 years after that

Memorial Union Renovation
- The University is working with an architect to prepare plans for historic preservation and renovation of the entire facility
- The first phase is expected to focus on the theater wing
- Part of the parking lot will be converted into greenspace
- A timeline has not been determined for this project

Upcoming road construction
1. Repaving Lake St. from University to Lake Mendota and Mendota Ct.
- The project is in the design/bidding phase
- It will start this spring after graduation and be completed by mid-August
- Parking for the Pyle and Lowell Centers will be affected for about 4 weeks during the start of the project

2. Francis St. from Dayton to Johnson
- This is in the design phase
- It will also start after graduation and take about 2 months

New Hockey and Swimming Facility
- A 2400 seat hockey arena with permanent ice will be constructed adjacent to the Kohl Center and connect to the SERF pool via a skyway
- The men’s and women’s hockey teams will practice and the women’s hockey team will compete there
- Lockerooms and offices for the men’s and women’s hockey teams and men’s and women’s swim teams are also included in the plans
- Lot 88 and the basketball courts behind the SERF will be removed but enough handicap parking has been accounted for
- The designs are complete, the University is working on bids and approvals from various committees
- The Joint Southeast Campus Committee voted to recommend the project with one friendly contingent – that the Kohl Center and the new facility never host events at the same time that require more than 18,000 tickets to be sold
o The contingent requirement is meant to prevent the University from overcrowding this area of campus with too many people at one time

September Committee meeting is cancelled

There aren’t any new agenda items for the Joint Southeast Campus Area Committee to review at this time so the meeting scheduled for September 20th was cancelled. Check back in November for updates from our next meeting.

Joe Klosterman