Big changes are in the works for the UW-Madison campus. Seven major construction projects, estimated at more than $250 million, are currently scheduled for this year alone.
Currently the new Engineering Centers Building is under construction and major additions to the Biotechnology Building and the Southeast Recreational Facility are also underway.
The Engineering Centers Building, set to open in October, will provide new space for student projects and room for student organization functions as well as meeting rooms. The three-story addition to the SERF includes four courts for basketball or volleyball, and a new aerobics area that features both cardiovascular and dance training.
A new addition to the Biotechnology Building is also part of the Healthstar initiative, which is a state-funded project intended to improve facilities for biological sciences and maintain the status of UW-Madison in biotechnology research.
\All research from the old building is being moved to the new [facility],"" said Julie Grove, supervisor of Facilities Planing and Management for the UW-Madison College of Engineering. ""[It will] improve decrepit conditions.""
The Biotechnology Building will be located on the site formerly occupied by the genetics and Reserve Officers Training Corps buildings, currently being demolished.
Due to the age of the ROTC building, the Wisconsin Historical Society originally objected to the project. However, the benefits of having the new building will eventually outweigh preservation efforts.
There are also few drawbacks to these new construction projects, said Perminder Ahluwalia, manager of facilities planning and management for the College of Engineering at UW-Madison.
Ahluwalia said, construction will not interfere with classes, and will have little effect on how students get around campus.
""Students will have the most modern classrooms,"" Ahluwalia said.
Even more construction projects are on the horizon, but have been postponed because of the current budget cutbacks to the UW System, Ahluwalia said. Those include a new $100 million Medical Sciences building, a $70 million dollar Interdisciplinary Medical Building and the second phase of Camp Randall Stadium.
