What’s Up in Vilas Hall
Vilas Hall looks a little different this fall compared to how it did when students went away for the summer. Over the past few months, the Wisconsin Department of Administration’s Division of Facilities Development initiated long-awaited infrastructure updates, one of which has been eagerly anticipated since the building first opened its doors back in 1972.
Update 1: Things Are Looking Up
Enter the main lobby in Vilas Hall, and you will be met with two elevators. Push the button, wait a minute or so, and the left one will open for you. The right, however, has been an empty shaft for over 50 years. After running into budgeting issues during the building’s construction, the second elevator was cut from the plans.
Adding a new elevator to the empty shaft was proposed as a part of a plan for accessibility improvements to the building. Prior to this Fall, there were only two available entries for people with disabilities, both of which were out of date and unreliable. Improving the existing elevator equipment and adding the new elevator will improve access to the building for everyone, something Communication Arts is eager to celebrate.
Update 2: Ramping Up Building Access
If you passed Vilas Hall on University Ave this summer, you likely ran into a closed traffic lane and got a glimpse of the second major infrastructure update for the building. Construction for a new ramp that will provide access to Vilas’s second floor is currently underway.
The project has been led by the Division of Facilities Development, the UW Facilities Planning & Management, and has involved architects and Vilas Hall tenant representatives. Early in the process, the designs received heavy input from the Wisconsin Historical Society to ensure they maintained the architectural integrity of the building’s brutalist style. As the Communication Arts building representative, Peter Sengstock attended construction meetings and was impressed by the intricacies of the architectural style that needed to be recreated in the updates.
“Every aspect of the scattered concrete blocks in the court was deemed ‘quintessential brutalist architecture’ and was carefully redesigned to match the original look of the building right down to the color additives in the concrete, the type of finish on them (trowel vs. brushed) and even the direction of the brush lines,” Sengstock said.
To prevent damage during construction, the mosaic “Freedom of Communication” by the late UW–Madison art professor James Watrous, was taken down and moved to university storage while plans for its possible reinstallation are considered. The Wisconsin State Journal covered the removal and stated, “Viewable from University Avenue, the piece has held a prominent presence along the well-traveled stretch since its installation in 1973.”
As students wander into the building to begin the fall semester, Communication Arts is excited to see how they enjoy these new building improvements. Future building renovations to improve the design and accessibly will continue to be advocated for, but in the meantime, we will celebrate the expanded opportunity for anyone to call Vilas home.
