Committee hears details for Institute of Discovery

by Amelia Vorpahl

Tuesday, November 27, 2007 01:10

Plans are under way for a new 30,000 square-foot research building to be constructed on University Avenue in June 2008.

The Joint Southeast Campus Area Committee met Monday night to listen to a presentation on the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and to discuss the details of its layout and construction.

Project manager George Austin said the focus of the Institute will be biomedical research, and it will have a perfect location across the street from the Genetics and Biochemistry buildings.

"The idea behind the Institute is to create a place for collaborative research," Austin said. "As such, we want to do everything to reinforce people working in the building, and coming through the building, to work together to be able to exchange ideas."

Austin also gave an outline of the building's layout. The first floor will be a public area, while the upper three floors will be primarily research areas. He said the research floors are characterized by three research "neighborhoods," and between the neighborhoods is what he refers to as the "connective tissue."

"The idea is that these [connective tissues] can bring people out of their laboratories and into these places — seminar rooms, café centers, coffee bars — things that will allow people to come out and converse," he said.

Austin also stressed a main component of the facility will be outreach and education in the community, as well as throughout the state.

Also discussed at the meeting was the upcoming renovation of the Education building on Bascom Hill. Committee member Alan Fish said funding for the renovation came from the Morgridge Family and that it will likely be a very long-term project.

"One of the things we've been working on is to try to find a way to begin the historic renovations of buildings on Bascom Hill, so this is the first one that we have struck funding for," he said.

The renovations will include constructing a new west wing of the building, including a terrace with a view of the lake, and some type of eatery. Demolition is scheduled for January 2009, and the renovation will be complete by fall 2010.

Also on the agenda at the meeting was a discussion about the renovations to take place at the Charter Street power plant. Some of the goals of the project include reducing the amount of coal the plant uses by 20,000 tons a year and bringing in new, more efficient boilers.

The project also aims to reduce the plant's reliance on coal, and will start to experiment with other fuels, like sawdust pellets and switch grass.

There will be two upcoming public meetings to discuss the power plant project, tentatively scheduled for January and April of the upcoming year. The goal is to have the new facility up and running by 2012 at the latest.