The new, $44.5 million Centennial Hall has opened on the campus of the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Eau Claire. National architecture and engineering firm SmithGroupJJR partnered with La Crosse, Wisconsin-based River Architects to design the 182,000-square-foot building.
Centennial Hall houses the College of Education and Human Sciences and consolidates teacher education that was previously split among three buildings dating back to the 1950s. It is the first new academic building on the UW-Eau Claire campus in more than 30 years.
“SmithGroupJJR and River Architects worked extraordinarily well together to create a beautiful and functional structure,” said Dr. Gail Scukanec, dean of the UW-Eau Claire College of Education and Human Sciences, “the new Centennial Hall allows for greater operational efficiencies and greater collaboration."
The four-story building, located between Schneider Hall and Zorn Arena in the central campus mall area, also houses the Departments of Education Studies, Special Education, English, Languages and select student support services. Major spaces are dedicated to distance education, active learning classrooms, teacher education methods labs, general labs and open study areas, along with a total of 165 offices.
Noteworthy are Centennial Hall’s 19 general assignment classrooms – ranging from one 160-seat to five 45-seat rooms – that offer significant new classroom space for use by the entire campus.
Students have a variety of choices for their collaborations. Options include informal “living room” spaces scattered throughout the building, ranging from quiet, four-student nooks to a bustling, multi-story cyber café with views of the Chippewa River, which runs through the campus and inspired the building’s playful, undulating south façade.
Design features nighttime presence, glass artistry honors the Hmong people
With its brick and stone exterior, Centennial Hall was designed to complement the campus’ oldest building: the circa-1916 Schofield Hall, which it faces from across the quad. The new building also blends harmoniously with the new Davies Student Center and venerable Schneider Hall.
Among Centennial Hall’s most dramatic design features are the building’s multi-story, glass corners that offer light-filled, social interaction spaces during the day.
“As night falls, the glass corners act as beacons of light, earning them the nickname of ‘lanterns’,” said Coty Sandberg, LEED AP BD+C, SmithGroupJJR project designer.
The design team maximized the amount of natural light drawn deep into the building to provide a bright indoor environment to its users. In addition to the building’s “lanterns”, designers strategically located windows to allow all public corridors outside views at the end. A rhythm of tall windows and glassy, multi-height spaces are prominent throughout the building.
According to Scukanec, one of Centennial Hall's more beautiful features is the pattern etched into the large glass windows on the building's southwest corner. The design team created the custom frit pattern to honor the Hmong people, an Asian ethnic group whose roots originate in the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. The Hmong have an important presence in the Eau Claire area.
"This architectural integrated artwork is a leaf pattern, a symbol for life in some cultures, including the Hmong culture," Scukanec said.
Centennial Hall is targeting LEED-NC Silver equivalency. Sustainable design features include optimal building orientation, low-E glazing, energy recovery and occupancy sensors. The building is designed to operate 30 percent more efficiently than current energy codes.
Leading the design of Centennial Hall was the Chicago office of SmithGroupJJR, which provided conceptual design, schematic design, sustainability consulting, design development and construction documents. The general contractor was Miron Construction, Neenah, Wisconsin.
Related Stories
| Jan 3, 2012
Gensler: 'The One Firm Firm'
The giant architecture firm succeeds by giving each of its more than 3,000 employees the opportunity for career growth and professional leadership.
| Jan 3, 2012
Rental Renaissance, The Rebirth of the Apartment Market
Across much of the U.S., apartment rents are rising, vacancy rates are falling. In just about every major urban area, new multifamily rental projects and major renovations are coming online. It may be too soon to pronounce the rental market fully recovered, but the trend is promising.
| Dec 29, 2011
OSHA enforcing new fall hazard standards
OSHA is enforcing its new fall protection standards, as evidenced by a recent crackdown in New York.
| Dec 29, 2011
Decision not to fireproof the new World Trade Center Transportation Hub criticized
Some criticized the decision, reasoning that the structure could be a terrorist target.
| Dec 29, 2011
Seismic safety in question at thousands of California public schools
California regulators responsible for enforcing earthquake safety laws have failed to certify more than 16,000 construction projects in California public schools, increasing the risk that some projects may be unsafe, according to a state audit report.
| Dec 29, 2011
GreenWizard offers cloud-based LEED credit management, assessment
The company recently began offering companies the ability to run assessments for design credits, in addition to traditional product-specific LEED credits.
| Dec 27, 2011
Clayco awarded expansion of Washington University Data Center in St. Louis
Once completed, the new building addition will double the size of the data center which houses sophisticated computer networks that store massive amounts of genomic data used to identify the genetic origins of cancer and other diseases.
| Dec 27, 2011
Ground broken for adaptive reuse project
Located on the Garden State Parkway, the master-planned project initially includes the conversion of a 114-year-old, 365,000-square-foot, six-story warehouse building into 361 loft-style apartments, and the creation of a three-level parking facility.
| Dec 27, 2011
Nova completes $60M Clearwater Conference Center
Comprising an entire city block, the 450,000 sq. ft. facility features over 400 meeting rooms, six theaters, a full-service health spa, complete with an indoor running track, and a commercial kitchen that can efficiently accommodate over 1,000 diners
| Dec 27, 2011
BD+C's Under 40 Leadership Summit update
The two-day Under 40 Leadership Summit continued with a Leadership Style interactive presentation; Great Solutions presentations from Under 40 attendees; the Owner’s Perspective panel discussion; and the Blue Ocean Strategy presentation.
