WORLD Title

Camosy renovates business school for Carthage

A.W. Clausen Center for World Business

By Sean Ryan

Photo courtesy of Camosy Inc.

Carthage College's A.W. Clausen Center for World Business is meant to give students a taste of the real world.

"It's designed for the students to use," said Raymond Camosy, president and chairman of construction manager Camosy Inc., Kenosha. "It's like a laboratory for the students so that when they are in the real world in a boardroom, they wouldn't be intimidated or wouldn't understand all the accoutrements in it."

The Clausen Center gives students the usual college education experience with its group study areas and rooms designed for smaller classes, but it also offers rooms built to mimic the modern office. Camosy said the building's boardroom is cushy enough for a board of trustees but built for the students to become comfortable with business meetings.

"Every office has a conference room, but it's not going to be as nice as this," he said. "If you were a student, you would be good at world business when you got out."

To build the Clausen Center, Camosy had to gut Carthage's 1961 library and build an entirely new interior in the structure. Camosy Inc. built the original library, and that helped when engineering issues arose throughout the project, Camosy said.

"You would never dream you were in the same space, and I guess, technically, you are not," he said. "There were always issues. It's a good thing we originally built it."

	Project Name: A.W. Clausen Center for World Business Location: Kenosha Submitting Company: Camosy Inc., Kenosha Construction Manager: Camosy Inc. Architect: Meyer, Scherer and Rockcastle Ltd., Minneapolis Engineer: Arnold & O'Sheridan Inc., Brookfield Owner: Carthage College, Kenosha Project Cost: $3 million Start Date: September 2003 Completion Date: July 2004

Camosy said the midstream changes inherent in any renovation kept the construction plan in constant flux. One of the major issues the contractor faced usually pops up in health-care jobs — machines that were integrated into the building design became obsolete during the project, so the plans had to change to accommodate the technology that replaced them.

Budgetary worries caused more revisions, forcing Camosy to find ways to pinch pennies without compromising the building's quality. The contractor saved $287,000 by replacing a glass handrail, which needed to be specially fabricated for the project, with a rail that was already on the market.

"Nobody wanted to make it, and those that did charged too much," Camosy said about the original handrail. "What we did was we just found one that was close and said, 'What do you think of this?'"

Camosy trimmed another $236,000 from the budget by replacing stone veneers in the building with cheaper maple hardwood.

"Stone is a lot more expensive than maple," he said. "What I said was, 'If you can strategically change from stone to maple, you can save a lot of money, and you don't have to make many changes.'"