UWEC Ed. Building Now Centennial Hall

Tom Giffey |

The building they’re building to educate the educators finally has been named a name: UW-Eau Claire’s under-construction academic building, formerly known by the blandly descriptive moniker the Education Building, now has officially been dubbed Centennial Hall. The name was chosen in anticipation of the university’s 100th birthday, which is coming in 2016. Considering UWEC’s origin as a teachers’ college, the historical name seems appropriate for the new hall. Interim Chancellor Gilles Bousquet made the final selection based upon suggestions from a building naming committee, which was composed of UWEC faculty, students, and staff. The $44.5 million, 182,000-square-foot building – which is on the site of the old Campus School on Park Avenue between Schneider and Brewer halls – is slated for completion in November and will be open for classes for the spring 2014 semester. Centennial Hall will include lots of classrooms; administrative space for the College of Education and Human Science; the departments of education studies, English, foreign languages and special education; as well as space for a variety of university support services (including the Office of Multicultural Affairs and Services for Students with Disabilities).