Part 1: The Story
The sun was barely over the horizon, and the University of Wisconsin River Falls Falcons football team was already making its way to the field. Practice at the break of dawn was nothing new. It was something that gave the players an edge as they prepared for the challenging schedule of games ahead. The season hadn’t yet started, but every morning, the team faced the same challenge: finding their equipment in the cluttered dogpile of a poorly organized storage facility.
This problem wasn’t exclusive to the football team or the athletic department. Items and equipment for the Health and Human Performance department, Athletics department and Campus Recreation were often stored at random and in the same area. Security was a problem. You never knew where items would be from day to day or who had used the items last. So, the Falcon Center Design Team decided it was time for a change.
Part 2: The Solution
When the team began researching storage solutions for their new Falcon Center for Health, Education and Wellness, it was clear to everyone that they needed to maximize the square footage allocated to each of the three residing departments. But it was also clear that there was no way to expand the facility’s existing footprint.
After visiting several different facilities to see how they were utilizing their storage areas, the Falcon Center Design Team decided that each of the three programs should be allocated their own space in order to support their specific departmental missions. So, they called Tim Goodman, a representative for Aurora Storage®.
It all began by identifying the items each program needed to store. Once Tim and the Aurora Storage team had this information they worked with the Falcon Center Team to build secure, organized and clean storage rooms. Each department’s room utilized high-density storage units designed by Aurora Storage to maximize every square foot available.
“Aurora Storage custom-designed a solution for our football shoulder pads, re-purposed their golf bag storage to organize our hockey sticks and even used our school colors. In the end, Aurora helped us accomplish our storage needs and organize the spaces in a way that we can be proud to show off what’s typically behind closed doors,” said Campus Recreation Director, Steven Stocker.
“This storage system is a major upgrade from our previous building and enhances the professionalism of our programs.”
– Paul Shirilla
Department Chair, Health & Human Performance Department
Tim and the Aurora Storage crew had several challenges ranging from changes in staffing from the campus during design and HVAC that was excluded from room drawings, to philosophical differences on how the rooms were organized. Each of these obstacles were overcome by Aurora’s process which included site visits and a review and approval process.
Aurora Storage even returned to UW-River Falls to reorganize the Athletic Department’s storage room so that each team had its own “row” of equipment. This type of individual care along with a reasonable price point helped assure that Aurora was the right company for the job. ▲