NEWS
Committee weighs in on visitor center
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by Darryl Schnell
Friday, April 22, 2005
The City of Madison Downtown Coordinating Committee discussed the future of University of Wisconsin campus visitor information as well as transportation Thursday night.
UW Director of Facilities Planning and Management Gary Brown spoke about the upcoming implementations of the campus master plan, including a “hit list” of various campus buildings, parking, campus architectural neighborhoods and the general aesthetics of the campus.
An upcoming addition to UW will be the proposed plans for a new information center on Park and Regent Streets.
Steve Amundson, the senior administrative program specialist for the Campus Information and Visitor Center, presented plans for the center, which would be adjacent to the current Park Street dormitory under construction.
Amundson said the goal of the new Campus Information and Visitor Center is to differentiate the new facility from the existing CIVC in the Red Gym.
“Although an official name has yet to be decided, we are considering the ‘University of Wisconsin-Madison Welcome Center,’” Amundson said.
The welcome center plans call for two large conference rooms where UW students, faculty, staff, alumni and donors can hold meetings, conferences and special events, Amundson added.
The center would also include various amenities such as touch screen information kiosks, an ATM machine, comfortable seating, televisions, public access computer workstations, refreshments and vending, maps and historical displays.
“We want to promote not only the institution, but the city as well,” Amundson said. “The main focus of the welcome center will be to provide a walk-in service for visitors and tourists to obtain information about the UW-Madison campus and surrounding community.”
In dealing with tourism and traffic downtown, the committee also briefly discussed Mayor Dave Cieslewicz’s proposed streetcar system. The system would run in the Park and Regent Street area, near the new visitor center.
This commuter rail system would travel on a campus loop from Park and Regent Streets, north to University Avenue, west to the hospital and back east to Park and Regent streets, according to Brown.
Committee member Jeremy Levin said he was encouraged to see the trolley being considered in the campus master plan along with several other large campus renovations.
“I hope [the trolley] can come to fruition,” Levin said.
While the trolley may have a positive affect on the growth of the UW campus, Amundson added UW administration has other issues with the new visitor center, specifically leaving campus tours in the hands of the CIVC.
According to Amundson, the administration would also like to leave specific university-related information in the hands CIVC and allow the new center to provide only general university information.
To increase public access to the welcome center, Amundson said administration would like to have a touch screen interactive information kiosk on the outside of the building as well. This would allow public access to information when the center is closed.
The UW Welcome Center is projected to open in fall 2006.
