Stone’s Green Look on Campus

When the campus-center concept progressed enough to hire an architect for the project, the school first turned to Milwaukee-based Uihlein/Wilson Architects Inc. (David Uihlein, one of the principals, is a Lawrence alum.)

“Because of the size of the project, they told us they would like to partner with somebody,” Hagee explains. “They arranged for several groups of architects to come in and make presentations to us, and we choose KSS Architects LLP of Princeton, N.J.”

Click photo to enlargeShe adds that KSS then worked on the conceptual issues for the project, leaving Uihlein/Wilson to work on the details and serve as architect-of-record for the building.

One of the first things the architectural partners did was develop a novel way for dealing with large delivery trucks on the site. Nat Stein, the project architect for Uihlein/Wilson, says Del Wilson, the firm’s other principal and project manager from that firm, was committed to the idea of not having to build a road for deliveries and firetruck access.

“They decided to bring the deliveries into the basement of the dormitory located adjacent to the campus center,” says Hagee. “We created a tunnel between the two, so that things are delivered to the east side of the dormitory, run through its basement, and then into the tunnel. At the other end are elevators that serve the four floors of the campus center.”

SPECIAL SPACES

The terrain posed additional problems. Stein notes that, because of the riverside location, there’s a 70’ elevation change between the water’s edge and the street level.

“The site is bounded by the river and a major roadway with a bridge directly adjacent to the residence hall,” he says. “There had to be extensive underpinning of the residence hall.”

He adds that the contractor, the locally based Oscar J. Boldt Construction, did what’s called soil nailing – pouring a slurry concrete mix and driving steel rods underneath the residence hall while they excavated for the campus center.

“In some cases, the walls for the foundation of our building are more than 30” thick to prevent it from sliding into the river,” Stein says.

With a goal to pack a lot of services into what became 107,000 ft² of space, spreading the building into four floors became necessary, Hagee says. In a first for the school, one floor is devoted to student activities.

“The fourth floor is really a half-floor because it’s built into the hillside, but student activities are there,” she says. “Student housing is there, and conference rooms and a computer room with 10 computers exclusively for the use of the 100 or more clubs we have on campus.”

It also provides space for the school newspaper and literary publications. The new center also allowed the school to combine all of its food-service operations in one location, along with all of its mail service. Other popular spaces include a convenience store, three activity rooms along the river, and a cinema that also doubles as a recital hall.

“We have a conservatory of music, and we’re finding that more and more students are interested in recitals that have many features,” says Hagee. “They may have a video going in the background and some electronic additions on the side, and the piano in the middle. We’re finding it’s the most-reserved room in the building.”