Three Ingraham, Humanities lecture halls get makeovers

One of the largest lecture halls on campus, Ingraham Hall’s Room B-10, is one of three renovated classrooms that will open its doors to students and faculty when the spring semester begins Jan. 20.

The 484-seat lecture hall, the university’s third-largest general-assignment classroom, was redone to provide better audio-visual technology and improved accessibility.

The upgrades are part of a UW System renovation program that began in 1995 to improve campus lecture halls with modern technology. They are the first lecture halls completed since seven classrooms were renovated in 2001. To date, the program has renovated 18 lecture halls and medium-sized classrooms at UW–Madison alone.

Gone are Room B-10’s poor acoustics, the rock-hard wooden chairs and antiquated speaker system known for its ear-splitting feedback. They’ve been replaced by new electronics, cushioned seats and an environment that is friendlier to both speakers and listeners.

The steep slope of the auditorium floor, which made it difficult to allow wheelchair access, was countered by adding a ramp along one side of the hall during the yearlong project.

“We’re trying to promote the best possible learning environment for students, and the best teaching environment for faculty,” says Kim Todd, senior administrative program specialist with the Division of Facilities, Planning and Management.

Todd says renovation of the three rooms, which included building an addition to Ingraham Hall to accommodate the new ramp, cost $1.45 million — and came in more than $345,000 under budget.

“The renovations make it easier for instructors to be seen and heard, and help make a connection with students that wasn’t possible before,” Todd says.

Tom Wise, classroom media support coordinator, says that more room was obtained on the stage area of the hall by removing closets and wings to the stage in the front of the hall. Ceilings, lighting and flooring were redone, and wooden paneling was removed and replaced with lighter-colored walls and acoustic panels.

Disturbing echo and feedback were eliminated by installing updated sound gear.

Although the room is equipped with DVD, video, audio-cassette and CD players, a document camera (a high-tech version of an overhead projector that doesn’t require transparencies) and wireless Internet access, Wise says chalkboards were installed to allow faculty to use the more time-tested means of making their points.

“We still have people who use a lot of chalk, but they use technology, too, and we wanted this room to be as flexible as possible,” Wise says.

Classroom media support specialist Derek Dombrowski says the room was hard on faculty and students.

“It was always on my list of classrooms to renovate. It was a dog,” Dombrowski says, adding that the document camera, equipped with a zoom lens, enables speakers to show printed pages or objects in detail as they lecture.

Also renovated in Ingraham Hall was Room 22, a smaller lecture hall that seats 118 people, and the Humanities Building’s Room 1651, which seats 77 people. Seating, ceilings, lighting and flooring in both rooms were replaced, new audio-visual gear was installed and asbestos abatement was conducted.