WAUKESHA – At long last, a classroom building has been constructed at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha Field Station. The Gertrude Sherman Building will be dedicated at ceremonies Saturday, September 29. The campus is using the occasion to sponsor an all-classes reunion then as well, and the Outstanding Alumna for 2001 will be recognized.
Dan Vrakas, state legislative representative and an alumnus of UW-Waukesha, will speak at the gathering, to be held from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Vrakas transferred to UW-Stevens Point, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in biology.
Wanting to preserve the natural environment, Gertrude Sherman, an alumna of UW-Madison, donated her 92-acre farm to UW-Waukesha in 1967. The school installed Marlin Johnson, who retired from teaching biology at UW-Waukesha in 1997, as its manager in 1970. Sherman willed her home to the university as well. Money from its sale was put in trust, and Funds from the trust financed the construction of the new $225,000 Sherman Building.
“It’s long been a dream of mine to have a building at the Field Station,” Johnson states. “There had been no space to look at specimens, no place to come in out of the rain.”
What Johnson believes to be the only one of its kind in the UW System, the UW-Waukesha Field Station includes 20 acres of oak woods, 8 acres of prairie restoration, pine woods, a spring-fed stream, access to a small lake, farm buildings, and a green house to germinate seedlings for further prairie development. The Glacial Drumlin bike path and the Ice Age Trail for hiking both run through the property, which lies across the street from Lad Lake. It is located on Waterville Road just south of Highway 18.
Even as the land has been used to restore natural prairie, to serve as an outdoor laboratory for biology, art, and UW Extension classes, no facilities for the public existed until now.
In 1997, several art faculty developed a summer course that included building a wood-fired kiln at the Field Station. The only one of its kind in the UW System, the kiln has been fired at least once a year since it was constructed, and the artists remain on site around the clock, no matter what the weather, during the firings.
“It will be nice to have a structure for the students to come in out of the elements,” comments Jeff Noska, an assistant professor of art and one of the directors of the original kiln project. “The ability to teach drawing and ceramics classes at the Field Station will add depth to our program by allowing students work in an off-campus environment surrounded by nature,” he adds.
Before she retired as dean of the campus in 1999, Mary Knudten secured the backing of the Friends & Alumni Foundation and began planning for a building. Don Gottschalk, Wales, was recruited to draw up the plans, and his son, Shane, was hired as project contractor. Assisted by UW-Waukesha dean Brad Stewart, the Friends & Alumni Foundation has overseen the entire project.
Foundation Board president Russ Launder is pleased with the fruits of their work. “This new Gertrude Sherman Field Station building will allow on-site classroom experience for students and yield much improved quarters for ceramic development. It can be used for a variety of other campus functions in the future,” Launder observes.
The 3000 sq. ft. Sherman building contains two classrooms: a 27 x 39-foot multi-purpose room and a 19 x 39-foot art room, which will be equipped with potter’s wheels.
After the presentations, tours of the Field Station will be conducted. Ceramics fired in the kiln and photographs by Field Station neighbor and professional photographer Larry Michael will be exhibited. Michael, who has documented the transition of the Field Station, is donating 6 of his best pieces to the university to remain on permanent display. |
