| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office.
A 'site file' (Bascom Hill Historic District) exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Historic Preservation-Public History.
This large concrete building, which is in a Brutalist style, from béton brut, meaning raw concrete, houses several University of Wisconsin departments. The building was designed in the late 1960s by Harry Weese of Chicago. The idiom emphasized structural members, such as posts and beams, and exposed concrete. Notice the marks of the wooden forms used to mold the concrete. Campus legend holds that the building’s bunker-like character and lack of an obvious main entrance were meant to deter student rioters protesting the Vietnam War in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but Weese drew the plans in 1963-64; it opened in 1969. In the late 1990s it took on the name of a leading historian.
Mosse Humanities Building is contributing to the Bascom Hill Historic District, NR listed 1974, NRIS #: 74000065
"Cross the concrete walkway spanning Park Street to enter the third level of the Humanities Building, designed by architect Henry Wesse [Harry Weese] of Chicago. Built between 1966 and 1969 of Wisconsin stone, concrete and copper, this building houses Afro-American Studies, Art, History, and School of Music.
Choral, orchestral, and band organizations practice and perform in the building. Some 200 to 300 student and faculty recitals and concerts are presented each year in Mills Concert Hall and Morphy and Eastman Recital Halls. The Arts Outreach Program brings faculty artists and student performances to audiences and schools throughout Wisconsin. Works by M.A., M.F.A., and undergraduate students are exhibited in the seventh floor Art gallery and sixth and seventh floor halls of the building. The sixth and seventh floors can be reached by elevator." University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Wisconsin-Madison Tour Guide, 1988. |
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