Parting Shot II

Come on, admit it: We know the "parting shot" on the back page is your favorite part of the District V newsletter, advance. So from time to time, we'll give you a second parting shot here on the CASE V Web site.

Red Skelton Performing Arts Center, Vincennes (Ind.) University

The 63,000-square-foot Red Skelton Performing Arts Center at Vincennes (Ind.) University was dedicated Feb. 24, 2006. Its theatre features European opera-house style seating for more than 800. The $16.8 million Skelton Center is located one block from Skelton's birthplace. The center was the site of a Red Skelton Festival last summer, which featured The Smothers Brothers, Skelton impersonator Tom Mullica, and Vincennes University alumni performers.

Avanté, Center for Science, Health Careers and Emerging Technologies, Harper College

What used to be a parking lot is now an amazing environment for learning across six acres of campus at Harper College (Palatine, Ill.).

Area voters challenged Harper with a referendum to build learning facilities for careers of the future. Voters got that in the $88.8 million Avanté, Center for Science, Health Careers and Emerging Technologies. Avanté houses 10 major academic programs including nursing, dental hygiene, medical imaging, cardiac care, electronics, computer science, biology and chemistry. The center's 400 rooms include: 27 classrooms; nine lecture halls; 38 laboratories; and 70 faculty and staff offices.

The name Avanté implies "advancement" or "moving forward." The center creates an environment to advance teaching and learning in the sciences, technology and health care for current and future generations. See more about Avanté.
—photo by Paúl Rivera

John P. Raynor, S.J. Library, Marquette University

The Marquette University (Milwaukee) John P. Raynor, S.J. Library uses a technology-centered design that provides immediate and unlimited access to information, regardless of location.

James I. Swenson Science Building, University of Minnesota Duluth

The University of Minnesota Duluth dedicated the $33 million James I. Swenson Science Building in September 2005. Designed by Chicago architect Carol Ross Barney, the three-level, 110,000 square foot structure provides teaching, research and administrative space for the departments of chemistry & biochemistry, and biology, and is named for Jim Swenson, a 1959 UMD chemistry graduate. The structure was the fourth building constructed since 2001 on the 244 acre, 50-building campus which overlooks Lake Superior and 10,500 students.

Oscar F. Boyd Cultural Arts Center, Wilmington College

The Oscar F. Boyd Cultural Arts Center at Wilmington (Ohio) College opened during the fall semester 2005 and quickly became the campus' new focal point. The center features the Hugh G. Heiland Theatre, Meriam R. Hare Quaker Heritage Center, David & June Harcum Art Gallery and a two-story academic wing. The $7.5 million center has been described as "The College’s front door to the community." The renovation and construction project is the centerpiece of the college’s $17 million "A Living. A Life. A Difference: The Campaign for Wilmington College." While the Boyd Center has an academic focus on theatre, music and art, some 70 percent of classes in the facility in fall 2005 were in non-fine arts disciplines.

Notre Dame University Marie P. DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts

The University of Notre Dame's $64 million Marie P. DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts, which opened in September 2004, features five performance venues:

• The 900-seat Judd and Mary Lou Leighton Concert Hall is used primarily for music performances
• The Patricia George Decio Mainstage Theatre, which seats 350, serves as a home for undergraduate theater, touring theater companies and Shakespeare at Notre Dame, as well as lectures and dance events
• The Regis Philbin Studio Theatre, which seats 100, is used primarily as an undergraduate theater facility
• The Michael Browning Family Cinema, a 200-seat theater with 35mm projectors and a state-of-the-art sound system
• The Chris and Anne Reyes Organ and Choral Hall, which features a hand-crafted organ of some 2,550 pipes, is designed to seat 100 guests and serve Notre Dame’s program of sacred music.

The DeBartolo Center also is home to Notre Dame's Department of Film, Television and Theatre and includes classrooms, editing studios, a recording studio, a scene and prop construction shop, a sound stage, a costume shop, a computer-aided design lab, a lighting lab, and music and theater rehearsal halls. In addition, all five performance spaces are designed to support academic instruction.

Along the Geneva Lake, Wis., lakeshore on 241 acres of wooded hillsides, the George Williams College Campus of Aurora (Ill.) University is beautiful. Rich with history, the campus in Williams Bay, Wis., was founded in 1886 as a YMCA training college and merged with Aurora in 1992. The campus offers a wide variety of services, including undergraduate and graduate degree programs. The university also offers a full-service conference center with lodging options and award-winning environmental and adventure programs. In summer, the campus is home to Music by the Lake, a music series, and the Music by the Lake Academy of the Arts, performing arts education for all ages.
— photo by Chuck Savage

send in your parting shot

Would you like to share a photo highlighting a program or physical characteristic of your campus in advance (the district's newsletter) or on this Web site? For consideration, send your photo and brief description to advance@uwlax.edu.