UW-La Crosse Prairie Springs Science Center Phase I

La Crosse, WI

UW-La Crosse is eager to deliver a transformational education that gives students hands-on interaction and experience with places, people, and technologies they’ll use in the workforce.

For its physical and life sciences programs, a dedicated science hub, able to support today’s technologies and a growing enrollment, was desired.

The solution was turning a parking lot into a four-story state-of-the-art science center to accommodate facilities for the physical and life sciences programs in line with UW-La Crosse’s dynamic educational mission.

The new Prairie Springs Science Center facility is 192,585 square feet and consists primarily of spaces that typically require a higher level of infrastructure than a standard academic building. There are 36 instructional labs and 23 research labs to support biology, biochemistry, chemistry, earth science, geography, microbiology, and physics programs as well as the River Studies Center and Radiation Center. Three laboratories are for cadaver-based studies of human anatomy and physiology. There are wet labs for aquatic science and aquatic toxicology, a facility for nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and laboratories for food microbiology and nutrition. A microscope imaging facility, including a scanning electron microscope, is also featured. The various labs are organized around common areas of research rather than by departmental boundaries, and supports faculty-student collaboration.