Science center for UW-Eau Claire open for bids

The $344 million multi-stage Science and Health Sciences Building project at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire is ready to take its next step, as the state seeks a primary contractor. The project has been in phases since 2019, and construction of the science building is expected to take two years.

Bidding is open for the five-story, 330,000-square-foot learning center, according to the Wisconsin Project Center. A sixth floor will include mechanical equipment spaces, a greenhouse and an observatory. The building will be home to multiple university programs, including biology, computer science and geology.

Bids for general contractors will end March 20.

Construction of the new building will cost around $245 million, state bidding information showed. University officials expect to break ground in July 2024 and the final opening is slated for fall of 2026.

Funding for new construction comes from a mixture of sources, including money from the 2023-25 state budget and private donations. The UW Board of Regents signed off on upgrading the lower-campus chiller plant, which will accommodate needed air cooling of the science building, university officials noted.

Madison-based Potter Lawson and Chicago-based HOK worked with UW-Eau Claire to prepare a feasibility study and come up with early project renderings.

The university will raze Phillips Hall, the school’s current science facility, and redevelop part of it into an expanded parking lot and green space, university officials said. In 2022, the university knocked down the Katharine Thomas and Putnam halls to make way for the Science and Health Sciences Building.

“Phillips Hall was not designed to handle modern STEM education, which requires cross-disciplinary laboratories and student and faculty collaboration within flexible spaces that promote innovation,” university officials wrote to the state Building Commission.

In 2019, the state enumerated $109 million to boost the first leg of the project, according to university officials.