It’s awfully hard to love this behemoth of a building. It straddles an entire city block; its windows are tiny slits; and its rough limestone walls are canted away from the street, as if to warn visitors away. There is no clearly defined front door; rather, a series of high staircases, leading to a maze-like interior with multiple dead ends. So why am I feeling a twinge of sadness about the planned demolition of the George L. Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison? Located at N. Park St. and University Ave., it violates every canon of pedestrian-friendly planning and it is, by all accounts, a totally dysfunctional space. Not for nothing is it known as the Inhumanities Building.
Office of Strategic Communication