The Joint Southeast Campus Planning Committee met Monday night to approve plans for the new University Square development, set to begin construction in June.
Eric Lawson, whose Potter Lawson architecture firm will build the new University Square, presented the committee with several drawings of the proposed development.
The complex will include two towers built atop two floors of retail space in place of the current University Square. One of the 11-story towers will contain private apartments, while the other will be property of UW-Madison.
Lawson said he expects the university to use its tower for student activities, health services and student services. He also said the tower will have four elevators, one more than the considerably-taller Van Hise building.
The private apartment tower will contain a mixture of one, two, three and four bedroom units, Lawson said. According to Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, Steve Brown Apartments will own the property in the private tower.
An underground parking lot located beneath the complex is also part of construction plans. The lot will be open to the public with approximately 250 spaces available for paid parking.
Future retailers remain unknown and, according to Lawson, construction will be well under way by the time retailers begin to rent space in the complex. Construction is slated to last three years, from June 2006 to June 2009, but Executive Management Inc., the developer, will not begin renting space before 2007.
One prominent casualty of University Square redevelopment will be University Square Theatres. When pressed for a specific date for the theater's closing, Lawson said only that current businesses are expected to be moved out by April or May.
The meeting did not focus entirely on University Square, however. Alan Fish, associate vice-chancellor for Facilities Planning and Management, announced plans for a new campus bus line beginning next fall.
Fish said the bus route will service Regent and Dayton Streets as well as Observatory Drive at Bascom Hill.
'It will double the number of buses going up the hill,' Fish said.
Several committee members said the bus route announcement came as a surprise, including Verveer, who said, 'It was totally new to us.'
The committee also discussed the Campus Master Plan and its implications for Regent Street. Ald. Austin King, District 8, is currently pushing for a redevelopment of the street.
'The aesthetic clutter in the area is nightmarish,' King said.
