Hannah Jones/Winonan

Kryzsko Commons is getting an upgrade.

Often a one-stop-shop for students looking to study, socialize, eat, buy their books or take the occasional awkward public nap on one of the leather couches in the solarium, Kryzsko will be undertaking a major expansion project starting this summer. The add-on, which will expand the building and add some much-needed space, has been projected for completion by spring of 2014.

The expansion has actually been in the works for quite some time.

Since the construction of the Baldwin Lounge and the Winona State University Bookstore in 1975, the school has its doubled enrollment—and it hasn’t gotten any bigger.

Winona State is bursting at the seams. Study rooms at the library are nearly always booked solid, especially around finals time. The commons themselves are packed daily with droves of students looking for a place to do their work or meet with classmates.

According to Associate Director of Student Activities and Leadership Tracy Rahim, Kryzsko has reached its capacity for meeting rooms.

Then there’s the bookstore, which, in the first few weeks of the semester, reaches a certain standing-room-only, fifteen-minute-checkout-queue, going-to-set-the-greeting-card-rack-on-fire threshold that most students know too well.  Let’s face it: things are getting a little crowded.

The expansion will ease the crowding by both enlarging the bookstore and creating a brand new study space.

Architect Ann Voda and designer Randy Moe will be the creative brains behind this transformation. Winona State students may be familiar with another sample of their work: the Darrell Krueger Library.

Now back at Winona State and charged with the task of making a new space students will enjoy and use, they took time at the Feb. 1 ASO meeting to ask students firsthand what it was they wanted in a space.

Because most of the students at the meeting will have graduated by the time the construction is completed, most will not actually be able to enjoy the new facilities, but Voda and Moe stressed the importance of their feedback, which represented the voice and the needs of the entire student body—present and future.

Surprisingly, for a room full of about 100 students supposedly unaffected by the upcoming changes, everyone seemed to have an opinion on what the new space should be like.

Ideas flew across the room, excited hands popping up for suggestions from every corner. A student commented that she would like a large, open space like Baldwin, specifically because even the smallest noises are amplified and echoed by the acoustics of the room.

“It keeps people quiet,” she said. “It keeps them—well—honest.”

Another student warned against getting round tables for the study area.

“There isn’t enough room. Your stuff just falls off the edges,” he said.

Voda and Moe kept the dialogue going as students filled out a survey on what they wanted and what they didn’t. Even more suggestions carpeted the pages: a kitchen area, a coffee shop, printer access, natural light and “outlets, outlets, outlets!”

Furthermore, many seemed to want something completely different.

Twenty-four percent of students interviewed said they wanted a modern, high-tech look for the new space. Fifty percent said that they wanted a more warm, homey appearance. Seventy percent liked the idea of adding a fireside lounge: “Sounds awesome, cozy!” Six percent were against the idea: “Is this necessary?” “Better ways to spend the school’s money.”

The surveys were collected and tallied, and the comments were recorded for later use, but with such a diverse range of responses, it’s difficult to say yet how Kryzsko will look in spring, 2014.

“They key word is versatility,” said Student Union/Student Activities Director Joe Reed, the major spearhead behind the expansion project. Reed’s job is to listen to and respond to the needs of the student body in regards to their space, and he realizes that with a student body as diverse as Winona State’s, the best space would be one that meets everyone’s disparate needs with flexibility.

The changes won’t be hitting the commons for some time, yet, but meanwhile, an active, diverse campus of learners crowds into Baldwin, the bookstore and the Smaug, taking chairs where they can find them, and dreams about a bigger, better Kryzsko.

Contact Hannah at [email protected]