Campus reacts to east campus plan

John Schaffer has heard the maddening sound dozens of times at Morphy Hall in the Mosse Humanities Building, often in the middle of a meticulously prepared student recital.

“It sounds like a 747, when the ventilation system kicks in. It’s literally a roar,” says Schaffer, director of the School of Music. “It’s horrible.”

In nearby Mills Concert Hall, the noise is equally vexing — and the drafts created in the 750-seat hall are so strong that they sometimes blow sheet music off the stage during performances.

“It’s a terrible experience for students and spectators alike,” Schaffer adds.

Those are only a couple of reasons why Schaffer and others who have had to deal daily with outdated, deficient facilities in the Humanities Building are excited about a bold plan to reinvent the east campus area.

It would create an arts and humanities district, new student housing and a pedestrian mall — and provide new music performance space, consolidate art facilities in a new building, and expand and renovate the Elvehjem Museum of Art.

The Humanities Building would be demolished in two phases as part of a long-range plan to redevelop the east campus area and create a pedestrian friendly, village-like atmosphere.

Art Department chair Jim Escalante is enthusiastic about these changes. Although his department is headquartered in the Humanities Building, art students and faculty work out of 10 sites scattered across campus — from the glass studio near Camp Randall Stadium to Tandem Press on Dickinson Street on the city’s east side.

“It’s very taxing on students and faculty. We’re missing a synergy and dynamic by not having a place where people can gather,” Escalante says, adding that space limitations force some faculty to rent their own studios or remodel spaces in their homes.

“It’s like asking a scientist to come here and develop a genome project in their garage,” he says.

Arts students and faculty also lack gallery space, something that would be included in a new facility, proposed for the southwest corner of North Park and West Johnson streets.

District for arts, humanities
Plans for the area, at the crucial intersection of campus and downtown, would create an arts and humanities district to anchor the lower State Street area, adding needed performance, gallery and classroom space, and a complement to the city’s Overture Center at the opposite end of the street.

“This plan lays out a vision that will invigorate the east campus area, and provides a spark that will make it a vibrant center for performing, creating, learning and living on campus,” Chancellor John D. Wiley says of the master plan, which plots a course for the university during the next 15 years.

After years of investing in life science and physical science facilities, campus planners are taking the next logical step: launching an upgrade of arts and humanities facilities, according to Provost Peter Spear.

“To continue to be a world-class university, we have to have the facilities needed for topnotch arts and humanities programs,” Spear says.

In addition, the plan, detailed by campus planners earlier this month, lays out a student housing initiative that includes construction of three residence halls and the eventual demolition of the Ogg Hall towers, which opened in 1965.

It would bring together 700 beds of student housing, student financial and health services, and retail development at the site of the University Square mall.

Associate Vice Chancellor Alan Fish told the Campus Planning Committee that the plan provides a cohesive approach to future development.

“Our campus’s boundaries are not going to change much. It would be very expensive to expand geographically,” says Fish. “We’re wiser to recycle and redevelop our campus in place.”

Goodbye, Humanities Building
Development of the arts district would require the eventual demolition of the Humanities Building, the A.W. Peterson Office Building and storefronts in the 700 block of University Avenue.

The site on the east side of Murray Street would provide room for the museum expansion, which would consist of a basement and four stories with a skywalk linking it to the existing structure.

That site would house the School of Music’s new performance space. Schaffer says plans call for a 1,000-seat concert hall for large ensemble needs, and another that would accommodate 300 to 400 people. For smaller recitals, the facility would also provide classroom-sized facilities.

Academic space for the school would eventually be built on the site of the UW-Extension Building, which also would be razed.

The History Department, another Humanities Building occupant, would temporarily move to Brogden Hall, allowing demolition of the Humanities Building in two phases.

After the northern half of the structure is razed, plans call for construction of a new classroom building on the site. Destruction of the rest of Humanities will clear the way for a new building for the History Department and various other humanities centers.

Pedestrian mall
The area would be drawn together by outdoor spaces. The pedestrian mall would stretch from Lake Mendota to just north of Regent Street and link high-use campus venues such as the Memorial Library and Memorial Union with the arts and humanities district, student housing and the Kohl Center beyond.

The mall would likely include outdoor performance areas and a sculpture garden.

Escalante says the plan will make campus arts and humanities programs showpieces for the community, instead of hiding them in deficient facilities.

“It’s a beautiful plan,” he says. “You create a symbiotic relationship with the city, one that pulls the city into the whole experience.”

The University Square development would feature one of three residence halls planned for the area. The second is on recreational fields at the southeast corner of Park and Dayton streets and would provide about 600 beds.

Paul Evans, director of University Housing, says that from 600 to 1,000 beds are needed to meet the demand of incoming freshmen, depending on the year.

“We need to make sure we have high-quality housing into the future,” Evans says. “We need to deal with aging buildings, and often simple renovations actually reduce occupancy.”

Just north of Park and Regent streets, the plans call for building a third new residence hall with 250 to 400 beds, plus office space and parking.

Another feature of the plan includes the eventual removal of a former bank building at the southwest corner of University Avenue and Park Street that now houses the McBurney Disability Resource Center and other offices to make room for an expansion of Grainger Hall. That facility would allow more space for graduate programs in the School of Business.

It also calls for a future addition to the Educational Sciences Building, to be constructed south of the existing tower at Brooks and West Johnson streets.