Mosse Humanities Building? It's not so ugly, UW prof says
A rat hole. Obsolete. Unfit. Ugly.
As the wrecking ball looms for the unpopular Mosse Humanities Building on the UW-Madison campus, it's important to note those less-than-flattering terms weren't used for that structure. Instead, those were descriptions bandied about for buildings on campus that are now beloved.
That's the message Arnold Alanen tried to convey Thursday night at the annual awards banquet for the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation. Where the Mosse Humanities Building, 455 N. Park St., sits now is part of a long-term plan for an east campus overhaul. Between that and complaints about the building's unsuitability, its future looks grim.
The UW-Madison professor of landscape architecture wasn't so much making a plea to save the building as to give reasons people should respect it just a little bit more. And, in speaking to a group at the Orpheum Theatre that clearly has a love of older buildings, Alanen also tried to make the case that enough time has passed that Modernist buildings are starting to fall into that category, too.
"Modernist buildings are something few people love," Alanen said.
But he noted that there is a growing movement to preserve modernism, including the cover story of the current issue of Preservation magazine: "Is it Time for the Preservation of Modernism?"
The Humanities Building takes Modernism a step further into the style of Brutalism -- angular, geometric and concrete. The love-hate relationship of that style is reflected by the fact that Boston City Hall, Alanen said, was recently named one of the top six buildings in the United States at the same time people are calling for it to be razed.
That building could pass for a close relative of the Humanities Building, which Alanen urged the group to give a modicum of respect.
"Even though 95 percent of you probably think it's worthless," Alanen said.
It's not, Alanen said in an illustrated presentation that took the audience through more than a century of campus buildings. It's also not the first time people thought that way about a building on campus.
A 1946 report on campus buildings cited many of the agricultural buildings as being problematic and suggested they be razed.
"At one time, even the Dairy Barn was supposed to be razed," Alanen said of the 1897 campus landmark. "Now it's really one of the important buildings on campus."
In that report, the Dairy Barn was considered "obsolete and an extreme fire hazard." It never was knocked down and in 2005 was named a National Historic Landmark, the highest designation a building can receive in the United States.
Even Science Hall, the 1897 building that looms over Langdon Street, apparently had its detractors. "New Science Hall Was Well Built, But Some Called It Ugly," said a headline Alanen showed.
Another headline called the iconic Red Gym "unfit." It, too, is now a National Historic Landmark. The University Club recently celebrated its centennial, but in the 1960s it was described as "the world's worst rathole," Alanen said.
On Thursday, Alanen wasn't making a plea to save the Humanities Building, although he has spoken at other times about his wishes that the university renovate from within. Instead, he wanted to point out what was good about the building.
For starters, Alanen said, architect Harry Weese was always respectful of the environment.
"You can see the Capitol over Humanities, unlike buildings in Madison now that cover the view of the Capitol," he said.
Just as important, Alanen said, was how the fortress-like quality of the building reflected its times. Campus unrest throughout the country led many universities to build in this style; there would be fewer windows to get broken during riots.
"What a good timepiece of the thinking of the period," Alanen said.
Alanen had a few suggestions for what could happen with Humanities beyond saving it, he said. Tours should be given of the building to provide insights into Modernism. Students and faculty should share their experiences in the building for the record. All the materials about the architect Weese should be gathered "for the people who will write about lost buildings of Madison or the lost buildings of Modernism."
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People have a love-hate relationship with the Mosse Humanities Building on the UW campus.
