The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s $50 million plan to develop its new School of Freshwater Sciences on a south side site overlooking the harbor won unanimous approval Friday from the UW System Board of Regents.
The plan calls for a three-story addition to UWM’s Great Lakes WATER Institute. The 125,000-square-foot addition would be built on university land just west of the 90,000-square-foot institute, 600 E. Greenfield Ave. The proposal also calls for renovations to the existing institute building, a former tile factory that overlooks the harbor.
The full board on Friday approved the plan, which won a favorable recommendation Thursday from a board committee.
“I would love to see a shovel in the ground by late spring of 2010,” UWM Chancellor Carlos Santiago told regents at the Thursday committee meeting.