Warch Campus Center

Tag: Warch Campus Center

Main Hall Cited in Annual Magazine Architecture Contest

For the third time in four years, a Lawrence University building has been cited in Fox Cities Magazine’s “Great Spaces Great Places” contest.

Lawrence’s venerable Main Hall was the top vote-getter in the magazine’s Best Historic Landmark category. Home to the humanities, the 157-year-old building and campus centerpiece was hailed as an architectural “icon in the Valley” by one member of the judging panel.

Last year, Lawrence’s newly opened Warch Campus Center copped the Great Spaces Great Places’ Best New Construction title, while Alexander Gymnasium received the Best Historic Landmark honors in the 2007 contest.

Lawrence Helps Commemorate 20th Anniversary of Fox Cities-Kurgan Sister Cities Program

Lawrence University will host a series of events commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Fox Cities-Kurgan, Russia Sister Cities Program Nov. 4-5. All events are free and open to the public.

The 30-member University of Wisconsin Russian Folk Orchestra performs Thursday, Nov. 4 at 7:30 p.m. in Stansbury Theatre of the Music-Drama Center. The orchestra performs with traditional Russian instruments, including the bayan, balalaika and the domra.

Three presentations will be conducted Friday morning, Nov. 5 in the Warch Campus Center.

Long-time Lawrence administrator Chuck Lauter, one of the founders and former president of the Fox Cities-Kurgan Sister Cities program, and is wife, Estella, share stories of Russia and her people in the presentation “Reflecting on Past Years of Friendship” at 9 a.m. Chuck Lauter spent 31 years at Lawrence as dean of students, dean of off-campus programs and international student advisor, before retiring in 2000. He has led numerous trips to Kurgan.

Two faculty members of Kurgan State University, Larisa Zhirova, senior lecturer of English and Natalya Bochegova, dean of the philological department, present “Perspectives on Change” at 10:30 a.m.

A panel discussion and audience question-and-answer session featuring Zhirova, Bochegova, Kurgan city councilman and head of the Kurgan Small Business Development organization Ivan Kamshilov and journalist Elena Ovchinnikova, chairwoman of the Kurgan Journalism Union, will be conducted at 11:15 a.m.

Campbell Scott, Class of 1983, to Screen “Company Retreat” at the Warch Cinema Friday and Saturday

“Company Retreat,” a film written and directed by Campbell Scott ’83 will be shown twice this week at the Warch Campus Center, with Scott taking questions from the audience after both screenings.

The film follows the development of a fictional game show which places white-collar workers on teams opposite their company’s blue-collar workers. The zany characters clash as the stakes rise in the isolation of New York’s Adirondack mountains.

“It’s ostensibly a mockumentary in the Christopher Guest vein about a reality TV show doomed from its inception. It’s about what happens to a bunch of people when they end up in the mountains with nothing to do,” Scott said.

Scott has had a long and successful career, starring in such movies as “Longtime Companion,” “Roger Dodger,” “Music and Lyrics” and “The Secret Lives of Dentists.” His directorial efforts include the movies “Big Night,” “Off the Map” and “Company Retreat.” Scott’s most recent acting performances include recurring roles on the television shows Damages and Royal Pains.

“Company Retreat” will be shown at the Warch Campus Center Cinema at 7:15 p.m. Friday, May 21 and at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, May 22. Audience members are invited to stay after the film for a brief question and answer session with Scott.

Scott will also be participating in the Lawrence Scholars in Business Entertainment Industry Summit May 22 from 4-6 p.m., where alumni will be discussing careers in entertainment with Lawrence students. Click here for more information about the summit.


Best of Show: The Warch Campus Center

awardLawrence University received one of the state’s most coveted construction honors last night (April 21, 2010) when The Daily Reporter and Wisconsin Builder magazine named the Warch Campus Center “Best of Show” at the magazine’s annual Top Projects awards ceremony in Pewaukee.  One of 31 construction projects in the state selected to compete for the award, Wisconsin Builder’s highest honor was a closely guarded secret until it was announced.

Joining Lawrence’s Lynn Hagee for the “Best of Show” recognition were representatives from The Boldt Co., the Appleton-based general contractor for the campus center, and Uihlein/Wilson Architects Inc., Milwaukee, one of the architectural firms working on the project.

A panel of independent judges were asked to consider the challenges the project overcame during construction, the benefit the project had on the community and any advancement it provided to the state’s commercial construction industry.  The project’s team members were praised for constructing a stunning building on a challenging site. Built into a bluff over the Fox River, the judges said the Warch Campus Center presented “every challenge regarding earth-retention, limited space and support systems.”

Here’s  video from the Top Projects Awards.

Six-Time Oscar Winner Headlines Lawrence University Term III Independent Film Series

The gripping Iraq war drama “The Hurt Locker,” winner of six 2010 Academy Awards, including best picture, headlines Lawrence University’s 10-week-long independent film series beginning March 31.

All films are shown on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. in the Warch Campus Center cinema, 711 E. Boldt Way, Appleton.  Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, call 920-832-6837.

The series schedule is as follows:

• March 31 — “500 Days of Summer” (2009): Nonlinear story of boy meets girl…boy falls in love…girl doesn’t.  Winner of two 2010 Golden Globe awards, including best picture.

• April 7 — “Amreeka” (2009):  Chronicles the adventures of Muna, a single mother who leaves the West Bank with her teenage son, Fadi, with dreams of an exciting future in the promised land of small-town Illinois.

• April 14 — “A Serious Man” (2009): A black comedy by the Coen brothers set in 1967 and centered on a Midwestern professor who watches his life unravel when his wife prepares to leave him because his inept brother won’t move out of the house.

• April 21 — “Earth Days” (2009):  Traces the origins of the modern environmental movement through the eyes of nine Americans who propelled the movement from its beginnings in the 1950s to its moment of triumph in 1970 with the original Earth Day, and to its status as a major political force in America.

• April 28 — “The Hurt Locker” (2009) : An intense portrayal of elite U.S. soldiers in Iraq who perform one of the most dangerous jobs in the world:  disarming bombs in the heat of combat. Winner of six Oscars, including best picture and best director.

• May 5 — “Paranormal Activity” (2009): After a young couple moves into a suburban house, they become increasingly disturbed by a demonic presence that is active in the middle of the night – especially when they sleep – where the horrific presence is captured on their video camera.

• May 12 — “Blue Gold” (Documentary, 2008): Wars of the future will be fought over water as they are over oil today as the source of human survival enters the global marketplace and political arena.

• May 19 — “An Education” (2009): A coming-of-age story about a teenage girl in 1960s suburban London and how her life changes with the arrival of a playboy nearly twice her age.  Nominated for three Academy Awards in 2010, including best picture.

• May 26 — “Man on Wire” (Documentary, 2008): A look at tightrope walker Philippe Petit’s daring, but illegal, high-wire routine performed between New York City’s World Trade Center’s twin towers in 1974, what some consider, “the artistic crime of the century.” Winner of 2009 Academy Award for best documentary.

• June 2 — “The Visitor”(2008): A college professor travels to New York for a conference where he discovers a Syrian musician and his Senegalese girlfriend living in his apartment.  The illegal immigrants have nowhere to go so he reluctantly allows them to stay with him.  Earned Oscar nomination for lead actor Richard Jenkins and Independent Spirit Award for best director.

Warch Campus Center Earns Facility Design Award of Excellence

Warch-Campus-Center_night
Warch Campus Center

The accolades for Lawrence University’s Warch Campus Center continue to roll in.

The most recent honor comes courtesy of the Association of College Unions International (ACUI ), which presented KSS Architects one of its 2010 Facility Design Awards of Excellence March 15 in New York City for its work on the Warch Campus Center.

The ACUI award recognizes excellence in design of college unions as well as other student-centered campus buildings.  Winners are selected on the basis of the facilities’ appearance as well as the process used to arrive at the building’s design and how the new or renovated facility affected the campus.

Nearly 20 years in the making, the $35 million, 107,000-square-foot Warch Campus Center opened last September.  It was awarded LEED-certified Gold status in November by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Greg Griffin, director of the Warch Campus Center, said the building “has greatly enhanced the overall experience” on campus.  With beautiful views of the adjacent Fox River, the building features several outdoor decks and patios, dining options on three of its four levels, student programming space, 24-hour student lounges and a 134-seat cinema with surround sound and state-of-the-art projection.

KSS Architects partner Pamela Lucas Rew said enhancing the campus experience was the goal of the project.

“We set out to create a project that would fulfill Lawrence’s mission and long-term and day-to-day expectations,” said Rew.  “From this, we developed architectural goals to knit together the campus, the site and the adjacent river into a building that communicates these ideas as well as serves the institution’s functional needs.  The ACUI Facility Design Award is about more than design.  It shows us that our client loves their building.”

The Warch Campus Center has been recognized previously with Appleton Downtown, Inc.’s Dreamers and Doers Award, a Top Project designation by Wisconsin Builder magazine and a Concrete Design Award from the Wisconsin Ready Mixed Concrete Association.  It was named winner in the 2009 “Best New Construction” category in FOX CITIES Magazine’s annual “Great Spaces Great Places” contest.

Other buildings cited by the ACUI for design excellence were the Student Success Center, Southern Illinois University–Edwardsville; Interactive Learning Center, Boise State University; The Commons, Bates College; Smith Campus Center, Pomona College; and the Joe Crowley Student Union, University of Nevada–Reno.

Appleton Downtown Inc. Honors Lawrence University for Warch Campus Center, College Ave. Median Project

Downtown Appleton, Inc. recognized Lawrence University March 18 with its 2010 Dreamers and Doers Award for the opening of the Warch Campus Center and the completion of the College Avenue median project.

The annual Dreamers and Doers Award, presented at ADI’s annual dinner at the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel, recognizes a business, group or individual “who has significantly enhanced, for years to come, the physical and/or economic landscape of the downtown.”

Lawrence University Warch CampusCenter
Warch Campus Center

Nearly 20 years in the making, the $35 million, 107,000-square-foot Warch Campus Center opened last September to rave reviews. In November, U.S. Green Building Council awarded the environmentally friendly building LEED-certified Gold status, the second highest designation on the green building four-level certification system.

The Dreamers and Doers Award is just the latest accolade for the Warch Campus Center. It previously was named one of Wisconsin Builder magazine’s 2009 Top Projects, earned a Concrete Design Award from the Wisconsin Ready Mixed Concrete Association and was named winner in the “Best New Construction” category in FOX CITIES Magazine’s annual “Great Spaces Great Places” contest.

The College Ave. median project between Drew and Lawe streets, was a joint undertaking between Lawrence, the City of Appleton and private donors in the historic neighborhood who funded the project.

College-Ave.-Median_web
College Ave. Median Garden

The revamped median was turned into a natural garden with shrubs, trees and flowers, providing a beautiful entrance to downtown Appleton. Lighted Lawrence University signs on each end of the median remind motorists they are driving through the campus. The median also features two well-defined crosswalks to enhance safety for students crossing the busy boulevard.

Warch Campus Center Wins Two Design Awards

Lawrence University’s Warch Campus Center has been named one of Wisconsin Builder magazine’s 2009 Top Projects.

The program recognizes construction developments that, according to the magazine, “have made a difference in their communities, triumphed despite tricky circumstances or introduced a new technique to the industry, among other reasons.”

The city of Appleton’s new $17.85 million, 1,372-foot College Ave. bridge, which opened in late October, also was named one of the state’s top 30 projects.

The 2009 winners feature projects from across the state in a variety of sectors, including education, health care, religious, commercial, residential and infrastructure. The state’s “top” Top Project of 2009 will be announced at an awards dinner April 21 in Waukesha.

The Warch Campus Center, along with each of the other winning projects will be featured in the May issue of Wisconsin Builder.

The $35 million, 107,000-square-foot Warch Campus Center also was recognized with a Concrete Design Award by the Wisconsin Ready Mixed Concrete Association for the 11-county Northeast Region. The biannual award comes with an engraved concrete plaque in the shape of the state of Wisconsin.

In December, FOX CITIES Magazine, in its annual “Great Spaces Great Places” contest, named the Warch Campus Center the winner of its “Best New Construction” category.

Officially opened in September, 2009 the Warch Campus Center earned LEED-certified Gold status, the second highest designation on the green building four-level certification system by the U.S. Green Building Council for its sustainability and energy efficiency features.

Tournées Film Festival Returns with Diverse Mix of French Cinema

The annual Tournées Film Festival brings a diverse mix of French cinema to the Lawrence University campus during a month-long screening of five films. The festival is made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French Ministry of Culture.

Each film — in French with English subtitles — will be shown three times (Thursday, Friday, Saturday) at 7 p.m. in Lawrence’s Warch Campus Center cinema. Admission is $5 at the door. An informal discussion session led by a faculty member of the Lawrence French department follows each Saturday evening screening.

Launched in 1995 by the French-American Cultural Exchange and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, the Tournées festival provides colleges and universities access to new French films that are normally only distributed in major cities. This is the fourth straight year Lawrence was awarded a grant to serve as a Tournées film series host institution.

The films and dates are as follows:

• Jan. 14-16 — “The Class” (“Entre les Murs”), 2008, 128 min., Rated PG-13

Based on the best-selling book by real-life teacher François Bégaudeau, the film follows Bégaudeau’s attempts to teach French to a class of multi-ethnic students at a diverse Parisian junior high school. Bégaudeau wrote the screenplay and stars as himself in this unsparing, unsentimental film about a teacher and his students.

• Jan. 21-23 — “A Christmas Tale” (“Un conte de Noël”), 2008, 152 minutes, Not Rated

When mother Junon discovers she has leukemia, the family’s Christmas gathering is spent discussing who will be the most compatible marrow donor. Set in a small city in northern France, this film follows the Vuillard family in an expert depiction of the volatility of family dynamics.

• Jan. 28-30 — “The Secret of the Grain” (“Le graine et le mullet”), 2007, 151 minutes, Not Rated

After Slimane, the patriarch of a large, vivacious North African family, loses his job, he decides to restore an old boat in the harbor into a floating couscous restaurant, relying on the help of his entire family. But the powerful white townspeople hold the bureaucratic keys needed to make Slimane’s dream a reality.

• Feb. 4-6 — “Fear(s) of the Dark” (“Peur(s) du noir”), 2008, 80 minutes, Not Rated (some sexual content and violence)

Six leading graphic artists and cartoonists turn their personal terrors into reality in this nightmarish animated anthology. Narrated by well-known French comedians, the six interlocking stories bring to life fears of the dark, injections, pursuit and more as reality crosses over into the unknown.

• Feb. 11-13 — “Blame it on Fidel!” (“La faute á Fidel!”), 2006, 99 minutes, Not Rated

Nine-year old Anna’s stable life goes awry when her uncle is killed and her parents suddenly become left-wing revolutionaries. Anna struggles to hold on to the comfort she is used to in the midst of these changes, while attempting to make sense of the larger political events that have shaken her life.

Warch Campus Center Cited in Annual “Great Spaces Great Places” Contest

Lawrence University’s Richard and Margot Warch Campus Center has been cited by FOX CITIES Magazine in its annual “Great Spaces Great Places” contest. The Warch Campus Center, which graces the cover of the magazine’s December issue, was voted the winner from among eight nominees by a panel of five community judges in the “Best New Construction” category. The $35 million, 107,000-square-foot building, which opened in September, was recently awarded LEED-certified Gold status by the U.S. Green Building Council for its sustainability and environmentally friendly features.

Tom Miller, one of the Great Spaces Great Places judges, said the Warch Campus Center, “blows it out of the water. Eighty years from now, the building will look just how it looks now.”

The award was the second for a Lawrence building in the four-year history of the magazine’s contest. In 2007, venerable Alexander Gymnasium was named co-winner in the “Best Historic Landmark Building” category, which recognizes buildings at least 75 years old and considered “icons of the Fox Cities.”