Who Knew?

Wisconsin Week’s Josh Orton finds answers to questions of campus interest posed by faculty and staff. We can’t promise to answer all questions submitted, but we’ll try to pick those most likely to be of interest to the largest number of readers. Send queries to wisweek@news.wisc.edu.

Q: Is it true that the Humanities Building was designed to resist protesters? Who designed it?

A: Rumors that Mosse Humanities building was designed to thwart protesters are false. So is the rumor, however plausible when one views the project, that the architect committed suicide soon after the building’s completion.

The myths probably started not long after the building was built: It opened in 1969, but the building was designed sometime before 1966 as a place to house history, art and music. What the resulting landmark lacked in first-floor windows, it delivered in slanted concrete walls and narrow hallways. But contrary to longstanding suggestions that these features were intended to stop protesters, the unusual characteristics are simply a hallmark of a particular style of architecture: Brutalism.

Emerging from post-war Europe, Brutalism is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as “an architectural style of the mid-20th century characterized by massive or monolithic forms, usually of poured concrete and typically unrelieved by exterior decoration.” Brutalism relies heavily on exposed structural elements, and often holds higher regard for architectural ideals than for the actual functionality of a building.

An oral history of the architect, Harry Weese of Chicago, reveals that Weese considered himself “anti-Frank Lloyd Wright” during college, as his generation considered the famous architect “old-fashioned.” Weese didn’t kill himself. He died in 1998, but not before designing Dulles airport and the Metro system in Washington, D.C., and the Chicago Metropolitan Correction Center. All are heavy on the concrete.

Weese’s design for Humanities may have been doomed even before the first batch of concrete was mixed. The Chicago contractor selected for the job was beset by delay from labor strikes and shortages.Within a year of opening, building occupants began to complain about noise and ventilation problems.

To add insult, emeritus dean E. David Cronon, then history chair, says the design didn’t squelch protests, as the halls were stormed several times. Cronon recalls that protesters did find a nice use for the plywood wall around the construction site, hanging anti-war posters and painting slogans there.

What’s his best guess as to why the Humanities rumor started? “Maybe because it looks like a fortress.”