Madison in the Sixties – the first week of June, 1961
Two months after businessman Henry Reynolds was elected mayor on a platform of killing the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Monona Terrace civic center, the Auditorium Committee dominated by his appointees votes to do just that. With pro-Monona Terrace members appointed by former mayor Ivan Nestingen now in the minority, Reynolds and his appointees vote 6-3 to terminate the contract with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and start from scratch.
Although the sharpest attacks on the project have involved criticism of Wright’s politics, lifestyle and business practices, Reynolds and his allies on the committee argue exclusively that the project as designed is just too expensive. The 1956 contract between the Foundation and the city set a limit of five and a half million dollars for the project which would combine an auditorium, exhibition hall, art gallery and community center; but when construction bids went out earlier this year,
Madison – May, 1967. The Bus Lane Protest
By the spring of 1967. many campuses were having demonstrations against the war, the draft, and the CIA. But only Madison had a disruptive protest over a bus lane.
In 1960 the city announced a ten-year plan to improve University Avenue from Bassett Street to Old Middleton Road, the first phase focused on the campus area four lanes heading west and one lane heading east, reserved for buses. Nobody objected. But when the new road finally opens in November 1966, the entire university community is up in arms about potential dangers. Several intersections don’t have traffic lights, and students focused on crossing the four lanes heading west sometimes forget about the one lane heading east.