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.