State picks architects for $96.3M technology center at UW-Green Bay

State officials have picked Engberg Anderson Architects and Houston-based Shepley Bulfinch to design a $96.3 million technology center for the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

The Department of Administration selected the two firms to draw up designs for the proposed Cofrin Technology and Education Center, which is meant to be a replacement for UW-Green Bay’s outdated and structurally unstable campus library. Seven other design teams submitted qualifications for the project. The DOA pared the list down to three firms before selecting Engberg Anderson and Shepley Bulfinch. Their design work is expected to take from 12 to 18 months.

The project earned support in the state’s latest two-year capital budget. The building it’s replacing, UW-Green Bay’s David A. Cofrin Library, was built in 1972.

A 2020 study found that renovating the existing library would be overly expensive. The “vast majority” of the building’s envelope has failed, and repairing it would require removing and replacing more than 75% of the face brick to shore up the building, according to a budget proposal.

The new building will have nearly 180,000-square-feet and between four and five stories. It will stand at the main entryway to UW-Green Bay’s campus and have a multi-use technology center and administrative offices. Follow @natebeck9