Tau Kappa Epsilon
Lambda Chapter // University of Wisconsin-Madison
Setting the stage for the next century of Lambda excellence on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, the Alumni of Lambda Chapter launched a significant chapter house restoration campaign. Serving as the home for 500 young men over the past 50 years, 219 Langdon is need of numerous upgrades. Numerous fraternities have built new facilities or have completed major renovations in the past five years at the University of Wisconsin. This includes Theta Chi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Phi Epsilon, and Sigma Chi. We need to provide a facility that is not only market competitive but can provide the memories that you enjoyed as an undergraduate.
Not only has the chapter house lodged hundreds of brothers, it’s been the site of many gatherings, study sessions, group meals, and more. It’s been an instrumental source of pride, leadership, and care by generations of outstanding students. As leaders of our Lambda, it’s vital that we provide an exceptional living and learning environment for today’s young men of our chapter, as well as future generations.
The decision to renovate the existing facility was made after a thorough analysis of the facility, assessment of university’s housing, and an evaluation of our chapter’s fundraising. We made the following conclusions:
• A renovated house cost much less than razing and building new.
• A renovated house provided more square footage than a newly built house, considering the overall cost of a new build, as opposed to a renovation.
• The existing foundation structure is of high quality consisting of concrete and structural steel and is in excellent condition.
• The existing house has many redeeming features, including a large parking lot, a rooftop deck, a large basement social hall, and a main floor dining room and kitchen.
• The existing house features 28 large bedrooms which can sleep two members per room. A new house, based on the financial model, would contain fewer bedrooms.
In addition, a renovation keeps our breakeven at a lower point that will help us during times when the chapter size is lower. Our current breakeven is only 20 occupants. With the renovation improvements we will at breakeven at an 80% occupancy by charging market rates.
This will be the second construction project at the chapter house since 1968. The renovation effort in 2007, successfully installed a new roof, infrastructure improvements, a fire sprinkler system, rebuilt bathrooms, and various other repairs. The facility now calls for additional improvements.
Click here to learn more about the construction efforts.