The University of Wisconsin–Madison is once again seeking to demolish its aging Mosse Humanities building, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
The facility is largely in disrepair. Its freight elevator does not work, and parts that need replacement are no longer made. Earlier this month, a weekend HVAC failure caused a flooding of thick mist in the music hall, resulting in the total loss of a nearly $10,000 piano and damage to plaster on the walls. Water leaks into the archive room and heavy machinery used in the printing and lithography programs in the art department, stressing the concrete floor. The building is also one of the university’s most expensive to maintain due to its condition.
UW–Madison has looked to raze the building for the last 10 years, since leaders developed the current campus master plan in 2015. Progress has been piecemeal — a new humanities classroom building provided a home for history and the humanities, and in the last budget, the university attempted to move the art department under one roof and failed.
With Gov. Tony Evers’ new budget, university leaders are combining all necessary work into one request; the proposed $292.5 million project would construct or renovate new homes for art and music — the last two major departments that remain — and pay for the demolition of the Mosse Humanities building. Music would be housed in a new building behind Hamel Music Center on University Avenue in place of a former UW Extension building, and art would move to an addition and renovation of the Art Lofts near the Kohl Center.
The goal is to raze the Mosse building by no later than 2030. The university has not said what will take the facility’s place on Park Street and University Avenue.
