An anonymous $10 million gift will help Lawrence University construct a building on the west edge of the Appleton, Wisconsin, campus that will add more than 30,000 square feet of academic space.
The university says the 315 E. College Avenue facility, developed in partnership with the Trout Museum of Art, will bolster Lawrence’s offerings in the humanities and its growing mathematics, statistics, and computer science programs. It also will provide plus space for the Conservatory of Music.
The $10 million gift is the third largest in Lawrence’s history. The donors have asked to remain anonymous.
Construction will begin soon. The four-story building will have more than 100,000 square feet of space and be Lawrence’s first new major building project since construction of Warch Campus Center in 2009.
The nonprofit art museum will be on the first floor, and academic spaces for Lawrence will be on the second floor.
Lawrence’s academic space on the second floor will include soundproof offices for Conservatory faculty and offices for the Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science Department.
It will include an innovative teaching and co-curricular commons, where students will engage in both formal and experiential learning in varying disciplines. And it will be home to the Humanities Center, an intellectual collaborative for faculty, students, and scholars-in-residence.
The upper floors will feature market-rate apartments, space that could one day be converted to student housing to meet future needs.
The architect is Frederick Fisher and Partners, and the builder is Boldt.
