Project Description:

The University of Wisconsin–Madison has laid out a 20 year Campus Master Plan to guide the preservation of green space, enhance open spaces for student activity, lay out where and where not to build, and direct what the buildings should look like. Redevelopment of the Union South block is a priority of this major planning and development.

Union South’s mission is to serve as a welcoming and comfortable center for campus life, but the current building is plagued with both infrastructure and design problems. The basic building systems are antiquated and inefficient; it is not fully ADA-compliant; and green space is limited and poorly laid out, among others.

The competition challenge is to design a new LEED Platinum Student Union which will serve as a gateway to the south campus, offer new and exciting ways of bringing people together, and support a full array of student services and activities. The building and site designs should be well-integrated with each other, the adjacent buildings, pedestrian-oriented transit, and the campus bus line.