Contact: Melissa DiMotto
(262) 472-1195
dimottom@uww.edu
*NOTE: A slideshow of Timothy J. Hyland Hall is available at: http://www.uww.edu/marketingandmedia/media/hyland-show.php
WHITEWATER The best in business education is about to get better with the opening of Timothy J. Hyland Hall, home to the nationally recognized College of Business and Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
The $41.5 million state-of-the-art building, named after Timothy J. Hyland, a 1982 accounting graduate who made a significant contribution to the building, makes a statement about the university’s extraordinary business college.
“Hyland Hall provides the College of Business and Economics an image that mirrors the quality of our programs, our faculty members and our students,” Interim Dean Lois Smith said.
Designed to have a corporate look and feel, Hyland Hall isn’t a typical academic building. It features an innovation and business development outreach center, an applied investment center that allows real and simulated stock trading, a 400-seat auditorium and an executive boardroom. Classrooms are equipped with the latest technology, demonstrating the college’s continued commitment to creating a “no-limits” learning environment for students.
“The building is very impressive,” said senior Kelly Raquet, an accounting major from Kiel. “The college’s business programs have an excellent reputation and now we have a building to match that reputation.”
Collaboration and outreach are key aspects of the College of Business and Economics, and Hyland Hall brings campus units together in an atmosphere that encourages communication, joint learning and interaction among students, faculty members, alumni and industry partners.
“Hyland Hall is an asset to the entire UW-Whitewater campus,” said Chancellor Richard Telfer. “Not only will our College of Business and Economics students benefit from this wonderful new facility, but also it allows for collaboration among the other colleges. For example, with Upham Hall just across the mall, I expect we will see more interaction between the sciences and business.”
Located at the center of the UW-Whitewater campus, Hyland Hall allows the college to be integrated with campus and is easily accessible to the public. The north side of the building, which opens to Starin Road, gives businesses access to the college’s business outreach programs in the Kachel Center for Innovation and Business Development.
“We are excited about the opportunities Hyland Hall presents to reach out to the region in terms of hosting conferences and other events,” Telfer said. “I also believe that the Kachel Center for Innovation and Business Development will bring even more regional businesses on campus to work with our experts. It’s going to add a new dimension to the campus, one that has been needed for some time.”
The building’s mission is to provide the best educational experience for students.
“The goal was to create the right environment for students to learn, to relax and to study,” said Larry Schnuck, senior principal and lead designer with Kahler Slater of Milwaukee, the architect of the building. “Learning happens in so many different ways in a college building. The building needed to provide students with different areas to relax and to have a dialogue with their peers.”
The centerpiece of the student area is the Deloitte Café on the main floor. It features comfortable furniture and touch-screen tables that allow students to access the Internet. The café also opens onto an outdoor patio that faces the Wyman Mall and Upham Hall.
Scattered throughout the second and third floors of the building are student study lounges, including the Ernst and Young Student Study Lounge on the second floor, and special “jewel box” study areas that “provide an area of repose within the building and take people out of the flow of the building and gives them some quiet,” Schnuck said.
“The part of the building I most appreciate is its gathering places,” Smith said. “Soft seating and spaces for conversation are located all over Hyland Hall. We have already noticed more interaction among faculty and staff members because of the design of the building.”
Natural light was an important part of the building’s design. The abundance of north- and south-facing windows allow the rest of campus to see what is going on inside Hyland Hall. “The transparency is purposeful,” said Interim Provost Christine Clements. “As a business school we need to be accountable for the work we are doing.”
Accessibility for students with disabilities was key for Hyland Hall, as UW-Whitewater has a mission to serve students with disabilities. Enhanced listening devices are in all the classrooms, lecture halls and the auditorium. All building entrances have ramps and automatic door openers. “We made sure this building is usable by all,” Schnuck said. “We went above and beyond what is required by the Americans with Disabilities Act.”
At 180,000 square feet, Hyland Hall is more than twice the size of the former business building and boasts 50 percent more classroom space. It includes 34 flat and tiered classrooms, three computer labs, two 150-seat lecture halls, one seminar room and four student project rooms.
“The tiered classrooms are really nice,” Raquet said. “I think students will be more engaged and there will be better class discussions.”
Schnuck and the Kahler Slater design team made sure the classrooms are flexible for the future. “The rooms can be reconfigured and accept new ways of learning,” he said. “That flexibility is integrated through the entire facility and will serve the college and the state well.”
Raquet said she is also excited to use the group project rooms. “It’s more convenient having them in the building where most of my classes are held,” she said. “We were always trying to find open rooms in the old building or we’d have to walk to the library or go somewhere else that was inconvenient.”
An accounting major, Raquet said she’s pleased to see the number of major accounting firms who have made an investment in Hyland Hall. She is looking forward to meeting friends for lunch in the Deloitte Café and is proud to know that one of the firms she plans to interview with this fall for an internship, Baker Tilly, has one of the 150-seat lecture halls named in its honor. The other lecture hall is named for Anchor Bank of Madison.
“It’s neat to see these businesses invested in our business building and in our success,” Raquet said.
