Development On Campus

WATCH: Sonnentag Event and Recreation Complex Fly-throughs

V1 Staff |

The huge new arena/recreation/educational facility planned by UW-Eau Claire – officially dubbed the Sonnentag Event and Recreation Complex – is still a few years in the future, but you can gaze upon it in all its glory (at least virtually) thanks to some animations created by Ayres Associates. The complex is slated to be built on 23 acres donated by the Sonnentag family between Menomonie Street and the Chippewa River. Current plans call for a 5,000-seat major event center (meant as a replacement for Zorn Arena) that could accommodate basketball and hockey games as well as other sporting events, concerts, festivals, and conventions. In addition, the complex would include a recreation, wellness, and fitness facility shared by UWEC, the Eau Claire YMCA, and Mayo Clinic Health System; a mixed-use university building called the Big River Education Center; and possibly other developments, including hotels.

While the animations recently posted by Ayres Associates are preliminary – and therefore likely to differ from the final product – they offer a glimpse of where we could be cheering on the Blugolds in the coming decade. Watch ...

Fly-through One

Fly-through Two