American Players Theatre credits UW-Platteville senior design team with renovation project

by Ruth Wendlandt, University of Wisconsin-Platteville

In 2020, four University of Wisconsin-Platteville senior design civil engineering students were tasked with the project of solving the parking lot concerns at the American Players Theatre (APT) in Spring Green, Wisconsin. Together Ryan Henning, Drew Archie, Keegan Flynn and Josh Hendrickson presented their findings to the company, not realizing a couple years later APT would be receiving a nearly $1 million Tourism Capital Investment Grant from the state to embark on those parking lot improvements.

The announcement came in February of 2022, from the governor’s office that APT would receive a $971,360 grant to, “expand and revitalize the theatre parking lot by replacing insufficient lighting with new LED lighting, expanding the parking lot to accommodate an additional 75 cars, installing a swale to manage storm water runoff and paving the portion of the lot that accommodates accessible parking.” Cari Stebbins, operations manager at APT said she was in disbelief when hearing the news.

“The state made a grant program available for shovel ready projects. We would not have been shovel ready without the senior design project,” said Stebbins. “We used that as our baseline and expanded upon that to apply for the grant. We are thrilled. This is a dream project. I’m not sure we would have been able to do it without the support of the UW-Platteville students and their work, the state and this grant.”

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