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Dive Brief:
- The University of Wisconsin-Madison has broken ground on a new engineering building after a funding fight that saw the new structure used as a political bargaining chip.
- The 395,000-square-foot Phillip A. Levy Engineering Center will occupy a 2.5-acre site in the heart of the school’s engineering campus, the university announced on April 17. It will be the third time the university has constructed a new engineering academic building over the last six decades to meet ever-growing demand, per the release. Currently, the university has the space to educate only about a tenth of all applicants.
- The road to reach groundbreaking was a difficult one — the new engineering center was part of a political fight over the last two years between the school and Wisconsin Republicans, who stalled public funding until the university agreed to limit diversity, equity and inclusion programming, according to Wisconsin Public Radio.
Dive Insight:
Wisconsin’s Democratic Gov. Tony Evers gave final approval for the building on March 6, according to a university news release announcing the money. It will cost $419.8 million — the state of Wisconsin will contribute $226.4 million — and will help the school educate about 1,000 additional undergraduate students.
Madison, Wisconsin-based Findorff is the construction firm on the project, according to the news release. The architecture and engineering team is made up of Milwaukee-based Continuum Architects + Planners, in association with Detroit-based architect SmithGroup and Brookfield, Wisconsin-based MEPT engineering consultants Ring & DuChateau.
It will span parts of the campus’ existing Engineering Mall and the space currently occupied by the academic building at 1410 Engineering Drive, which will be demolished.
The building’s learning wing will feature mass timber construction and a green roof to manage stormwater and mitigate the urban heat island effect, per the release. It will also contain refreshed green space and indoor and outdoor gathering spaces.
“While getting this project done wasn’t without its challenges, we’re thrilled to be breaking ground on an engineering building that’s going to help graduate thousands of new engineers and have a tremendous impact on the students and faculty that teach and learn here, as well as on our state, our workforce and our future,” Evers said in the release.