Engineering Centers Building wins state award

The Engineering Centers Building (ECB) at the College of Engineering has been recognized as a top recipient of honors from the Wisconsin chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

AIA Wisconsin gave the building one of its three honor awards at its 2003 annual convention, held Wednesday, May 21, and Thursday, May 22, in Madison.

Judges praised the building, which opened last fall, for its “great street presence” and its “muscular…machine-like approach in design.”

The ECB is the college’s first completely new building in 30 years. It houses student engineering groups, student project and activity areas, the college’s Engineering Career Services office, the Department of Biomedical Engineering and several state-of-the-art laboratories.

It also features several notable works of art, including a stainless-steel-and-wire sculpture by R. Buckminster Fuller and an 11,000-square-foot terrazzo floor that was funded by the Wisconsin Percent for Art Program.

The college broke ground for the four-story, 204,000-square-foot building in June 2000. Its design was the combined work of architects from Kohn Pederson Fox Associates of New York City and Flad & Associates of Madison. J.P. Cullen & Sons, Inc., of Janesville, served as the primary contractor for the building.

Funding for the $53.4 million came from the state of Wisconsin, gifts from the college’s alumni and friends, and the UW–Madison Vilas Trust.

For photographs of the building, visit http://www.engr.wisc.edu/news/exhibits/.