UW-Eau Claire provides planning update for Science and Health Sciences Building

Members of UW-Eau Claire’s Science and Health Sciences Building Planning Committee outlined the project Tuesday with floor plans, elevations and renderings. A second campus open house will be from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 30, in the Council Oak Room (260) of Davies Center.

“I’m very excited to see the project progressing and to share it with the rest of campus,” says Dr. Michael Carney, interim assistant chancellor for strategic partnerships and program development, who is chair of the Science and Health Sciences Building Planning Committee. “It gives a sense of what it will look like from the outside and what will be housed inside.”

The Science and Health Sciences Building will replace the nearly 60-year-old deteriorating Phillips Science Hall that no longer meets the needs of UW-Eau Claire students.

Katharine Thomas and Putnam residence halls were demolished this fall to make way for the Science and Health Sciences Building that will be 330,000 square feet, making it more than 1½ times larger than any other academic building on campus. Phillips Hall presently is the largest academic building with 192,250 square feet, followed by Centennial Hall with 182,000 square feet.

The UW System Board of Regents approved its 2023-25 biennial capital budget request in August that included $235.5 million for completion of the new Science and Health Sciences Building project. The UW System budget request will be considered by the governor and state Legislature as part of the 2023-25 state biennial budget process that will begin in early 2023.

If the funding is approved by the Legislature and governor, construction could begin in spring 2024, with plans for the Science and Health Sciences Building to host its first classes in fall 2026.

The 2019-21 state budget included $109 million for the first phase of the building project.

Learn more about the Science and Health Sciences Building project here.