As confusion grows among UW-River Falls students with the temporary closure of Centennial Science Hall, university leaders say the change is part of a long-term plan to make room for a proposed $303 million Agricultural Science building, which may not be completed until the mid-2030s.
The closure has left many UWRF students questioning where classes, labs and study spaces will be relocated in the coming years, especially as construction is expected to reshape large portions of campus.
Interim Chancellor John Chenoweth said the closure is largely tied to the recent opening of the SciTech building, which has absorbed most of Centennial’s former functions. He described the sequence of events as a multi-step transition.
“SciTech opened and then all of the units from Centennial [moved to] SciTech,” Chenoweth said. “Centennial is not fit for [the high growth of scientific research and demands for talent] anymore, so Centennial will need something done at some point to make it appropriate for whatever’s next. Then that leads to our next major project on the campus that we would hope gets approved in this [upcoming] capital budgeting process, the Ag Sci building, which we will know more exactly what’s going to happen to Ag Sci once the project gets approved.”
Most of Centennial Science Hall will remain vacant, with only the observatory staying accessible. Still, university officials say the building will play a key role in future construction plans.
“Everyone from Ag Sci will get distributed in other places across campus,” Chenoweth said. He added that the Agricultural Science building is expected to be the next major construction project. With approval still pending, the university’s immediate goal is to prepare Centennial for the transition. “In theory, if it got approved in this capital budget, we’re still about four years away to six before it’s completed.”
According to the UW System website, a 2011 “Master Plan” presentation titled Living the Promise: Academic Planning at UWRF outlined future campus projects, including the SciTech building and other proposed facilities and renovations. The plan anticipated long-term updates to aging academic buildings.
The current Agricultural Science proposal carries an estimated cost of $303 million and includes a new facility, updated greenhouse space and renovations to existing infrastructure.
The Chief of Facilities at UW-River Falls, Alan Symicek, oversees campus infrastructure, capital planning and engineering. He is responsible for building and ground maintenance, as well as utility operations and was involved in recent major UWRF projects, including the SciTech building.
“In 2017 we did a campus wide feasibility study at all of our science facilities and science buildings,” Symicek said. “The recommendation of that study suggested that we build a new STEM building- so that’s SciTech – and then we need to do significant improvements or replace the Ag Science Building.”
Built in 1966, the current Agricultural Science building no longer meets the needs of modern science instruction. Symicek said the building’s labs are outdated and cannot support the demands of contemporary agricultural science education.
“Those labs are not capable of everything we need to do for modern science education,” Symicek said. With further mentions that Centennial Hall, he added, is expected to serve as a temporary relocation space during construction, housing classes and programs displaced by the project.
The estimated timeline for a project of this size can take up to multiple years to complete, facing the reality that Ag Sci building would likely need to be demolished and rebuilt.
“Construction could be in the early 2030s… maybe completed by 2033 or 2035. It’s quite a ways out, and it’ll be
long,” Symicek said.
When asked about how this new project would affect regular campus life, it was made clear that although the project would involve large blockages around Ag Sci, it would not affect students’ ability to reach the main buildings on campus as it had done for SciTech.
However, construction is still expected to significantly impact campus layout during construction. With large portions of the area potentially fenced off, classes will be temporarily relocated across campus.
Still, university leaders say the long-term goal is to strengthen academic programs and research opportunities,
allowing students, particularly undergraduates, to pursue more complex outlets of research and studies alike.
When asked to describe the future of UWRF in one sentence, Symicek said, “I think this project would elevate our
agricultural science education research, just kind of taking what we got to the next level in agriculture.”
For now, Centennial Hall remains in transition, serving not as a closed space, but as a placeholder for what university officials describe as the next major phase of campus development