Among the statewide projects unanimously approved by the State Building Commission on Wednesday was Wisconsin’s plan to buy the downtown Madison building housing the Wisconsin Veterans Museum for $9 million, the Wisconsin State Journal reports. The aging building at 22 and 30 W. Mifflin St. is set to be demolished to make way for a new, state-of-the art facility.
The current 10-story building, constructed in 1948 and 1964, is owned by EMI, and the state Department of Veterans Affairs has been leasing around 28,300 square feet of it for over 30 years. The state’s lease permits a purchase prior to the lease expiration, and the $9 million in funding was approved in Wisconsin’s current two-year spending plan, signed last summer.
The new five-story museum has an estimated price tag of $140 million, around $40 million of which is planned to come from private donations raised by the Wisconsin Veterans Museum Foundation. Philanthropist W. Jerome Frautschi last spring pledged $10 million in funding, but first the current site must be purchased and the full $40 million secured.
The museum’s current site can only display about 3% of its collection, while the new facility would have the capacity to display 20–25%. The proposed new location at the top of State Street would also place it close to the Capitol building, the Madison Children’s Museum, and the $160 million Wisconsin History Museum, coming soon.
