River Center

Named after its close proximity to the Fox River, it was known previously as River Commons.

Facts

Built: 1967

Cost: $1.9 Million

Original Purpose of Building: Dining hall

Current Use: Destroyed (2013). Site used for the Rec Plex facility. 

History

Like its neighbor Gruenhagen Hall, the River Center was built at a time of enormous growth of student enrollments but then was closed down after these numbers dropped. Ultimately, both buildings four a second life as a conference and meeting center.  

When it opened in 1967, River Commons was the second dining facility built on campus after Elmwood. Designed by Daverman Associates of Grand Rapids, Michigan, the building was constructed by Oshkosh-based Precour.   River commons was built to accommodate 2,400 students, or the combined capacities of the four planned towers who were to eat there.  At the time River opened, North and South Scott Halls had yet to be completed and another 400-student suite-style dormitory was being considered closer to the Fox River which, assumedly, was also to use River Commons.  Like other ambitious plans of the late 1960s, this river side dorm would not come to pass.  The ending of the military draft and a recession both contributed to a sharp decline in enrollments in the early 1970s. By 1975, smaller classes forced the University to close Gruenhagen Hall and a year later River Commons closed as a cafeteria.

By 1979, the University still owed over $1 million dollars on the property and was desperate to sell the building to the Fox Valley Technical Institute which was looking to expand into Oshkosh. FVTI, instead chose to build on a site across the river.  The University then tried to lease the building to other interests.  For a period of time in the early 1980s, the Mary Linsmeier preschool operated out of the facility.  In 1985, the building was used as the new home of the University-affiliated Koehn Institute of Information System and Automation. 

River Commons was pressed into service as a cafeteria again in 1982 after a fire damaged large portions of Blackhawk Commons.  That same summer, River Commons suffered a flood but was still useable.  After Blackhawk reopened, River Commons again was closed. 

River Commons was eventually renamed River Center and was primarily used as a meeting space as part of the Gruenhagen Conference Center operation, providing larger banquet rooms for off campus users as well as students and staff.  For years, the building was an important facility for the the Wisconsin Academy Correctional Institute. In 2008, a major flood filled the building with 12 feet of water damaging it beyond repair.  The insurance settlement on the building was put toward a new conference site and visitors center, the now named, Culver Family Welcome Center.

In 2013, the River Center building was demolished and a four season recreational facility, the Rec Plex was built on its site. 

Photos