Cowley Hall was built in 1965 as a new space for the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse’s science department and classes. It has served the university well for the past sixty years, but will be demolished following the fall 2025 semester in order for the second phase of the Prairie Springs Science Center project to begin construction.
“Cowley is ready to be retired,” said Adam Schneider, a UWL biology professor. “I think it was probably a great state of the art building when it was first built in the 60s, but it’s definitely beyond its useful lifespan. We’re just really excited to have these new upgrades in the coming years. It’s definitely overdue.”
The building currently houses the biology department, chemistry and biochemistry department, geography and environmental science department, math and statistics department, microbiology department and physics department. Cowley Hall is made up of the offices, classrooms and labs relating to these departments along with the greenhouse, herbarium and planetarium.
The greenhouse is used for both teaching and research. There are a variety of plant biology related courses offered at UWL involving plant identification and plant physiology. The greenhouse also offers a collection of teaching specimens for introductory classes. It has also been used for faculty and student research projects, including both independent research and course embedded projects like hydroponics.
However, the greenhouse has outlived its usefulness. Over the years, it has become less weatherproof, and the heating and cooling issues throughout Cowley Hall are an even bigger problem in the greenhouse where living organisms are present.
“In my teaching and research there’s been a lot of things that I wish I could do or plants that I wish I could have available to show students but just can’t because you can’t keep them alive in the greenhouse or don’t have the space to maintain them,” said Schneider. “Having more modernized facilities and having the type of resources that a place like UWL ought to have will be really exciting.”
There will not be a greenhouse present on campus until the second phase of Prairie Springs is finished, but UWL has worked with Western Technical College to create a rental agreement so that student and faculty researchers have a space to work in the interim. The rented space will be used primarily for research since the distance makes it a difficult location for entire classes to utilize.
While some plants can be kept in this rented space, the majority of the teaching collection will not be preserved over the interim to prevent new pests and pathogens from being introduced from the old greenhouse into the new space.
Schneider said, “In the short term, it won’t change how I teach too much. I haven’t used the greenhouse a lot because we’ve already been wrapping things up in there, but once we have the new space, it will open up a lot of new opportunities for hands-on learning.”
Schneider mentioned that there will still be a lot of plants hanging out in the windows of the current Prairie Springs building, and that the department is also working to save a two panel mural that had been installed in the current greenhouse. If a place can be found to store the artwork over the interim, it will be hung in the new Prairie Springs Science Center once it is complete.
“The murals are a cool connection from the past to the present and a collaboration between biologists and artists,” said Schneider. “We would definitely like to keep those.”
Schneider is also working on packing up the herbarium, which holds over 50,000 plant specimens dating from the 1850s until now. The specimens will be stored in Cartwright Center until the new building is complete.
The approved plan for phase two of Prairie Springs includes space for the herbarium and greenhouse, however UWL have to say good-bye to the planetarium since it will not be included in the new construction project.
Planetarium Director Robert Allen said, “I can’t do anything about it, so it doesn’t do any good to cry in my beer, but it certainly does take a little bit of my heart out.”
Allen has been with the university since 1969, just a few years after Cowley Hall was built. He taught astronomy classes for 33 years along with running the planetarium. While he did retire and move to Florida for a few years, Allen moved back to Wisconsin, resumed his role and still works as the planetarium director today.
“It’s just been a pleasure working in a place where they appreciate what you do… I’m proud to have ended up here,” Allen said.
The plans for the second phase of Prairie Springs had originally included a new planetarium, but after the project was delayed and building costs increased, the space was cut from the final blueprints of the new building because it is technically not an astronomy classroom.
While astronomy students do utilize the space, they only make up about a quarter of the people that spend time in the planetarium.
The planetarium currently serves the university, the La Crosse community and the surrounding schools and community. Different programs are put on for a variety of university classes, school groups, private groups and the general public.
After the planetarium closes this December, the La Crosse area will not be left without a place to see the stars. Central High School is home to a planetarium that currently serves the La Crosse school district and is hoping to open its doors to the surrounding schools and host more public programs, as well.
Central High School’s planetarium converted to a digital model a few years ago, but the planetarium at UWL remains an optical projector. Most planetariums in the country have been converted to digital, and Allen said, “This machine is like cassettes and 8-tracks are to the planetarium field. It’s a dinosaur.”
However, everything is still in working condition and is able to see its time at UWL through to the end. The planetarium hosts Album Encounters every Friday night which consist of light and laser shows set to music. The planetarium’s last public program will be an Album Encounter of Pink Floyd’s The Wall on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025.
The planetarium will also be hosting an open house on Monday, Dec. 8, and the chancellor will be present at the event to say farewell and thank you to the planetarium.
Allen said that two of his former student workers are returning to say good-bye to the planetarium, as well. Three student assistants graduated and became planetarium directors themselves and have stayed in touch with Allen over the years.
“They’ve all made me proud,” Allen said. “They’ve worked under me and seen what I did and wanted to do that for a living and have done a great job of it in my opinion.”
Allen is thankful to all of his student workers and students who spent time in his classroom in his 33 years of teaching as well as everyone that he worked with over the years of his time at UWL.
“All of my students are special to me,” said Allen. “The three that I told you about call me Astro Dad, and the others are special no matter how long they were with me.”
Cowley Hall holds a lot of memories for many people and will be remembered as its time at UWL comes to an end. Now the university looks forward to the construction of phase two of Prairie Springs Science Center and what it will offer for the future students of UWL.
