Members of Union Council, the governing board of the Wisconsin Unions, met Tuesday to hear the latest plans for the new south campus union.
Project Director Jan van den Kieboom presented the newly updated Broad Scope Program Model, a list of functions that will take place at the new building and how much space the current plan allots each of them.
Kieboom also displayed the tentative floor plan, which includes interweaving terraces, space for student organizations, a theater, bowling alley, climbing wall and a pub that could double as a performance space.
Major updates to the plan include moving the bowling alley from the lower level to the second level and rearranging the sizes of specific areas without changing the overall number of square feet.
The meeting was then open for questions and discussions. According to John Barnhardt, Union president and chair, the purpose of the discussion was to give recommendations on the general direction of the project.
Barnhardt said the Union Council members are not the real experts in regard to the project, and the architects have given great thought and consideration to the project.
I don't think the point of this evening is to go through fine details of square footage,"" Barnhardt said. ""We should be giving recommendations on how to move forward.""
The Design Committee approved the Broad Scope Program Model, but left room for the possibility of amendments.
Considerable disagreement arose around the size and location of a planned climbing wall.
Design Committee member Dan Cornelius said he was concerned the climbing wall would fail because it is not currently placed in a central place. There was also concern that the current plan does not allow room for ""bouldering,"" which is a style of climbing to low heights without ropes.
After much discussion, committee members voted on recommendations to make to the architectural team.
They approved the recommendations to change the name of the climbing wall to include the word ""bouldering,"" as well as giving the climbing wall a minimum of 30 feet and adding 400 square feet to the climbing wall area.
