A Closer Look at UWEC’s Plans to Reboot Garfield Avenue
A $12.4 million project to completely refashion Garfield Avenue on UW-Eau Claire’s campus and create an outdoor classroom, a scenic overlook, and an amphitheater will likely begin as early as next year. On Wednesday, the city of Eau Claire’s Parks and Waterways Commission gave a unanimous thumbs-up to early design plans for the Garfield Avenue Redevelopment Project.
The project amounts to a long sought-after and complete redesign of that area of lower campus, both above the ground and below. Most of the campus portion of Garfield Avenue will be removed to create a pedestrian and bicycle thoroughfare, which will be moved farther away from the Chippewa River than the current street. (While today you can drive west on Garfield all the way to the foot of the infamous campus hill, after the project is finished only emergency and service vehicles will be allowed west of the Ecumenical Religious Center.)
Meanwhile, the south end of the footbridge over the river will be reconfigured to increase safety and accessibility. Instead of sharp 90-degree turns, the bike and pedestrian ramps to and from the bridge will be straighter and have more gradual slopes. And that’s not all, according to a UWEC press release:
The project will also entail surface improvements including the removal of the Putnam Parking Lot to create outdoor classroom space; creation of a scenic overlook where students, faculty, staff and the public can gather; construction of a small outdoor amphitheater that can be used for classes, performances or informal gatherings; and new pathways along the Chippewa River.
In addition to all this aesthetically pleasing (not to mention useful) above-ground work, about three-quarters of the project’s cost will be for the kind of things that you can’t see but that are vital to the university’s operation. A whole host of aging utility pipes and lines – water, sewer, steam, electrical, telephone, IT – will be replaced between the base of the campus hill and Park Avenue (where Hibbard Hall is). In addition, a natural gas line will be extended down the Garfield Avenue corridor to the site where UWEC wants to build a new science building. (Spoiler alert: Say goodbye to Putnam and Katharine Thomas halls by 2030.)
So, where did UWEC get $12.4 million? The project was part of the 2013-15 state budget, with half to be paid through state tax-supported bonds and the other through bonds funded with university revenue.
As with any major project, this one requires numerous approvals. Over the next couple of months, expect the Eau Claire Plan Commission, the Eau Claire City Council, the UW System Board of Regents, and the State Building Commission to chew it over and offer their input. If all the right boxes are checked, work is expected to start in the spring of 2017 and to end by the fall of 2019.
To learn more about the Garfield Avenue project, visit http://www.uwec.edu/facprojects/garfield.htm.
