Video: Summer Sweet Spots 2019
You can enjoy these campus locations any time of year, but they are especially sweet during the summer months. Produced by University Communications
The Memorial Union Terrace is actually home to few but considered home by tens of thousands of University of Wisconsin–Madison students, alumni and fans of the campus. This pictorial glimpse of a night on the Terrace highlights great conversations, marvelous music and the splendid scenery that draw so many to our big back patio by the lake.
Sitting in the shadow of Camp Randall Stadium, the 6.5 acre Camp Randall Memorial Park is a quiet green space listed on the National Register of Historic Places as an important Civil War-related site in Wisconsin. Today people hang out and study or play catch, but the site has had a storied past. From 1858 to 1885 the Wisconsin State Fair was hosted here, and the location was used as a Civil War training ground for Union Army troops from 1861 to 1865. And famously, for several months in 1862 it was the detention center for more than 1,200 Confederate prisoners of war.
Library Mall, where lunch and leisure meet, is another sweet spot on the UW–Madison campus. It’s definitely a must-stop destination during the summer months, filled with food carts and places to just hang out.
The Lakeshore Path is the ribbon that ties the entire Lakeshore Nature Preserve together — the path runs either through or near all the major areas in the preserve. The Howard Temin Path extends from North Park Street to Oxford Road. It was given its name in 1998 as a tribute to the late UW–Madison professor of oncology and Nobel Prize winner. Howard Temin often walked and bicycled along the path, finding opportunities for quiet reflection and contemplation along the shoreline.
Established in 1989, Allen Centennial Garden is the artful living laboratory and public botanical garden of the Horticulture Department. The garden is open from dawn to dusk and admission is free. Next to the garden, you’ll find a historic Victorian Gothic house built in 1896 that was originally the Agricultural Dean’s Residence.
New to the lakefront between the Red Gym and the Union Terrace, you’ll find Alumni Park. Completed in 2017, the park is a place that celebrates the University of Wisconsin–Madison and its graduates.
Recognized as one of the oldest and largest community gardens in the United States, the Eagle Heights Gardens are growing food for the UW and Madison communities. Here, faculty, staff, students, and neighbors members make up a community of gardeners from around the world.
Picnic Point, a nearly mile-long peninsula along Lake Mendota’s south shore, is among Madison’s most distinctive features and is probably the most popular destination in the preserve. Each year thousands of students and Madisonians visit the point for outings. In a hectic world of university life or city living, it’s nice to know that this natural area is just a short distance from where you live.