Trends Winter 2023 | Page 18

What ' s Inside ?

The CMC is being built on a site along the Chippewa River in Eau Claire about 1 mile west of the UW-Eau Claire campus and about 2 miles from Interstate 94 . Facilities inside the 225,900-square-foot CMC will include :
• 104,900-square-foot Sonnentag Event Center with a main event space with four sport courts and a capacity of 5,000 ( 3,944 spectator seats and standing room for 1,056 ) for UW-Eau Claire athletics , regional athletic competitions , concerts , tradeshows , and conventions .
• Artificially turfed John and Carolyn Sonnentag Fieldhouse , an 81,300-square-foot indoor facility containing a 100-yard practice field for university athletic teams , club sports , intramurals , the community , and Mayo rehabilitation and training personnel . It is believed this facility will be among the largest indoor practice facilities in all of college football .
• Two-story , 14,200-square-foot fitness facility called Center for Health and Wellbeing .
• Blugold Athletics offices totaling 4,800 square feet .
• Mayo Clinic Health System ’ s independent clinical location of 20,700 square feet offering sports medicine , human performance enhancement , and diagnostic imaging services .
and then back through the 36 miles of geothermal wells to be tempered again .
Some of the other notable ways the CMC design achieves these impressive energy savings :
• Water heating costs are reduced by 34 % below the baseline . Rice chalks this up largely to efficient fixtures , including in the extensive locker room spaces . The design reduces indoor water use approximately 36 % from the calculated baseline through the installation of highly efficient Water Sense fixtures : 1.28 gallons-per-flush ( gpf ) toilets , 0.125 gpf urinals , 0.35 gallons-per-minute ( gpm ) lavatory faucets , and 1.5 gpm showerheads and kitchen sinks .
• LED lighting is being implemented throughout the complex .
• Building automation systems will provide a high level of electrical and mechanical systems control . Sensors that monitor occupancy , daylight , and carbon dioxide will tell the systems when they can turn off lights and / or reduce heating / cooling , reducing energy use and increasing the lifespan of systems .
Left : Tubing connects each of the 190 vertical geothermal wells to a vault where the system ’ s tempered fluid will be collected before it is routed into the CMC ’ s heating / cooling equipment .
18 | TRENDS Ingenuity , Integrity , and Intelligence .