New science facility at Carroll University still on schedule for fall 2016

Todd Ponath
Demolition crews work on tearing down Maxon Hall on the Carroll University campus in Waukesha on Thursday, Jan. 15. The hall is being torn down to make way for a new 44,500-square-foot, multistory science facility.
Published on: 1/19/2015

Tiffany Wynn said Carroll University had no idea a time capsule had been buried on campus more than 50 years ago.

"We didn't have the slightest idea it was there," said Wynn, Carroll University's senior public relations strategist. "We didn't know what was inside it."

The time capsule was rediscovered behind Maxon Hall's cornerstone when prep work was being done for demolition of the old science center, which was built in 1961. Last week, more than 54 years after it was put in the ground, university officials finally found out what those in the early 1960s wanted to preserve.

Encapsulated in history

Items included brochures from then-Carroll College, some academic publications, clippings from The New York Times and the Milwaukee Journal newspapers from the 1960s, early computer material, maps from the city and county from the 1950s and '60s, reports from Carroll's Geography Department, and photographs of the campus and the under-construction Maxon Hall in 1961. There was also a copy of the Holy Bible enclosed.

While nothing groundbreaking was revealed from the capsule, Wynn, who noted the university's archivist in the library will hold on to all the items, said it was still a neat experience finding something buried so long ago.

David Block, an associate professor emeritus of geography and environmental science who taught in Maxon Hall for 26 years, had the honors of opening the time capsule.

With a new state-of-the-art science building now going up, Wynn said a new time capsule will be buried somewhere within that building.

She said the school is forming a committee to decide what will go inside the new capsule, which will be buried while the building is under construction.

Replacing Maxon

After the contents of the capsule were revealed on Thursday, Jan. 15, Maxon Hall came down.

Wynn said while demolition of Maxon Hall is a month later than originally scheduled, the new 44,500-square-foot, multistory science center is still expected to open by the fall 2016 semester. Wynn said as construction continues, science classes will be held in different halls on campus.

The university moved forward with its plans to build a new science facility during the summer of 2013. The facility will house laboratories for biology, chemistry and biochemistry as well as faculty offices and gathering spaces for students.

One story will be below ground level, while three stories will be above ground level. The building, on the northeast corner of College Avenue and Barstow Street, will extend closer to College Avenue to the south and to Carroll's Rankin Hall to the east.

Construction of the project is approximately $24 million. Wynn said the university has raised 83 percent of its fundraising goal. Funds have come from alumni, foundations and corporations, among others.

University officials hope the new facility continues to grow an expanding student-base studying the sciences.

Wynn said about two-thirds of students at Carroll major in one of the sciences — biology, nursing, physical therapy and exercise science are among the most popular academic disciplines at Carroll.

"Carroll has become a destination for many bright, talented, science-minded students," Carroll University President Douglas Hastad said. "This building will certainly become a tipping factor as students choose where to spend their college careers."

Another new building

The university also recently announced that it received a $1 million challenge grant from the Bucyrus Foundation of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation for the construction of the Bucyrus Center for Applied Physics and Engineering on campus.

It is the lead gift for the university's second phase of a multi-year project to upgrade its science facilities.

The proposed center would be a 12,000-square-foot space connected to Carroll's Lowry Hall, a building constructed in 1949 that houses physics and chemistry programs and their laboratories.

The Bucyrus Center will be dedicated to classrooms and laboratories that support the university's applied physics/engineering dual degree program, which has grown in recent years.

Wynn said the total project also includes renovating the existing 16,270-square-foot Lowry Hall.

"The proposed Bucyrus Center is part of Carroll's larger comprehensive campaign to raise $50 million for buildings and endowment," Hastad said.

About $31.5 million of that campaign has been raised.

Hastad said the largest part of the campaign focuses on the construction and renovation of its science facilities.

"The new (Bucyrus) center will help Carroll meet the goal of increasing the talent pool of engineers for Waukesha and the Greater Milwaukee region," Hastad said.