APPLETON, WIS. — Official ground-breaking ceremonies will be held Friday, Oct. 6 for an expansion that will more than double the size of the Björklunden lodge on Lawrence University’s “northern campus” in Door County.
Lawrence officials and members of the steering committee that coordinated the fund-raising campaign for the building addition will be on hand for the festivities that will begin at 4 p.m. Robert Schaupp, president of P&S Investment Company of Green Bay, a 1951 Lawrence graduate and a member of the college’s Board of Trustees, chaired the campaign and will preside over the ceremonies.
The total expansion project cost stands at approximately $4 million and is the principal component of a $5 million effort, “Extending the Reach: A Campaign for Björklunden,” that was launched in August, 2005.
The addition, to be built on the south end of the current lodge, will add approximately 20,000 square feet to the existing 17,190-square foot, two-story seminar and conference center on the 425-acre Björklunden estate.
“The addition is an affirmation of the love people have for this place and the confidence they have in the unique learning programs we offer here,” said Mark Breseman, director of Björklunden. “This expansion was really user-driven and speaks to the growing popularity of the seminar programs and the need for additional space to accommodate those demands.”
Located on the Lake Michigan side of the Door peninsula just south of Baileys Harbor, Björklunden Vid Sjon — Norwegian for “Birch Forest by the Water” — hosts weekend retreats and seminars for Lawrence students throughout the academic year and week-long, adult continuing-education seminars during the summer. Free music recitals and small concerts that are open to the public also are frequently held there. Björklunden’s facilities, including lodging, are available for use by private, public and corporate groups for conferences, meetings and special events as well.
The expansion of the lodge will include 10 new bedrooms with lake views that will increase summer seminar sleeping capacity from 22 to 44 and school year sleeping capacity from 54 to 104. It also will feature a large multi-purpose room, a second seminar room, a computer room, a mudroom for the sciences and an observation deck for a telescope. Other new features include an elevator, additional bathrooms, storage and mechanical rooms and expanded on-site parking.
Miller Wagner Coenen and McMahon, a Neenah-based architectural firm that designed the current lodge, also designed the addition. Van’s Lumber and Custom Builders, Inc. of Dyckesville will serve as the general contractor on the project, which will be completed by June 1, 2007, in time for next summer’s adult seminars. Lawrence students will still be able to attend weekend seminars during the construction process.
The Björklunden estate, which features large tracts of woods, meadows and more than a mile of unspoiled Lake Michigan shoreline, was bequeathed to Lawrence in 1963 by Donald and Winifred Boynton, a self-taught artist, of Highland Park, Ill., with the understanding that it would be preserved in a way that would ensure its legacy as a place of serenity and contemplation.
During the 2005-06 academic year, more than 1,300 Lawrence students and faculty attended 30 separate weekend programs at Björklunden. Adult summer education seminars, which have been offered at Björklunden since 1980, accommodated more than 500 [articipants at 27 week-long classes between April and October in 2006.
Each July and August, Björklunden also is home to stage performances by the professional classical theatre company Door Shakespeare.
