College also starts renovations to Eppley Auditorium
Board members, administrators and students break ground in May for the new academic village. It will feature a new classroom building, a new advising center and a remodeled Hickman-Johnson-Furrow Learning Center. Photo by Rick Wollman.
The Vision 2020: Transformation II campaign has been so successful that Morningside College was able to break ground this spring on the academic village that will feature a new classroom building, a new advising center and a remodeled Hickman-Johnson-Furrow Learning Center. It also began renovations to Eppley Auditorium.
This was possible because the college has already raised more than $37 million of its $50 million goal.
President John Reynders announced that W.A. Klinger of Sioux City is the general contractor for the academic village. Cannon Moss Brygger Architects of Sioux City is the lead architect, and HGA of Minneapolis, Minn., is serving as the design architect.
“I’m grateful to the generous donors who made it possible for us to reach 74 percent of our campaign goal after only 18 months of active fundraising,” Reynders said. “Our students, faculty and staff are looking forward to the completion of the new and remodeled facilities.”
The new classroom building will be located south of the learning center and west of the Walker Science Center. It will house Morningside’s education and nursing departments and a new applied agricultural and food studies program. The advising center will be built next to the academic building and will connect to it with a second-floor walkway.
An outdoor plaza will visually link the new buildings with the existing learning center and science center. The learning center will be remodeled to create a new main entrance from the Hilker Campus Mall, and to convert the second floor into a study lounge.
The academic village is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2014.
Renovations to Eppley Auditorium will include new seats, carpet and wall coverings and new exterior landscaping. These will be the first updates to Eppley Auditorium since the facility opened in 1966. The project will be completed by September.
Vision 2020 is a multiyear initiative to raise $50 million for facilities improvements, the endowment and the annual scholarship fund. The fundraising effort is scheduled to end in 2019 to coincide with the 125th anniversary of the college’s founding.