Doug E.L. Haynes
A black-and-white sketch of the UW-Madison's Mosse Humanities Building from the street.
There are few issues as polarizing as this one among Madisonians. It’s not political, or at least, not on the surface. It’s not NIMBYism. The question concerns the UW-Madison’s George L. Mosse Humanities Building, better known as (and originally named) simply “Humanities.”
Do you love the building, or hate it?
That’s the question that Madison artist Doug E.L. Haynes is asking Madisonians via a Google form survey as he documents the building in a series of 100 sketches, before the structure’s planned demolition, now slated for 2029-2030.
Humanities, constructed between 1966 and 1969, holds down the northeast corner of University Avenue and North Park Street like a behemoth. Designed by noted architect Harry Weese in the Brutalist style current at the time (which he also used in designing the Washington, D.C., Metro stops), Humanities has drawn both ire and praise over the years. Despite its status as an architecturally significant building and one of the best examples of the Brutalist style in the Midwest, it was constructed on-the-cheap with too many cost-cutting measures, according to “How the Humanities Building Went Wrong,” a 2021 article in On Wisconsin, the UW-Madison alumni magazine. The cut corners (and, some argue, the original design) caused maintenance problems from the start that have only grown worse. The departments housed in the building have also outgrown the space. The art specialty rooms and studios are particularly outmoded. The school of music has already partially moved to the new Hamel Music Center.
In the 27 responses Haynes has received so far, there’s been a lot of “dislike, rancor toward the building,” he says in a phone interview with Isthmus. Either way, people seem to “strongly love or hate” the building.
Haynes also asks respondents to share a story about the building, if they have one. “There have been interesting stories. Having people share them adds a lot. Everybody has their own experience.”
Haynes, a Madison native and graduate of West High School, remembers his father, a local architect, talking to him about how humans “interact with architecture” and the younger Haynes found Humanities, in particular, fascinating in that regard.
Then in the summer between graduating from high school and beginning his undergraduate studies at Kalamazoo College, Haynes took what he calls “his first college class,” a ceramics course taught in Humanities, and was thrilled to be there “with the real college students.”
Haynes was inspired to start sketching the building before it disappears. “As an artist, there is a certain joy in the pursuit,” he says.
He previously published the State Street Adult Coloring Book in 2021, which combines black-and-white sketches of State Street with poems and essays about the area, which Haynes solicited. “A book benefits from a variety of viewpoints,” says Haynes. He wants to incorporate people’s memories and feelings about Humanities, as expressed in the survey, in much the same way. “Everybody has their own experience in the spaces. Some people got lost on their way to an exam, or maybe they had their first kiss there.”
His own goal is to include 100 sketches of Humanities; he’s already at 94. “It’s a lot [of images] for any one place,” he admits, “but there is really a lot there to take a look at.”
Doug E. L. Haynes
Black and white sketch of a small room inside the UW-Madison's Mosse Humanities building often used for sections.
"I'm sure a lot of people remember taking a class in a room like this one," says artist Doug E.L. Haynes.
While he doesn’t intend for the book to be another coloring book, the sketches are line drawings, “although with some shading” — and he notes that the Humanities building “doesn’t have a lot of color,” so if people want to treat it as a coloring book, that’s okay with him. Sketches range from almost fish-eyed treatments of the building’s exterior to realist takes on the small “section rooms” that occupy much of the lower floors of the north section of the building.
“I think a lot of people who try to draw the Humanities building flounder. It’s a complicated subject,” says Haynes. One day while he was at the building sketching, a first-year drawing class was outside “taking on” the building, too. “It’s tricky,” says Haynes. “It offers some troubles with perspective.”
So far Haynes has been promoting his survey through a zine he hands out showing some of his sample sketches and a QR code link to the Google form. But he hopes to get a lot more responses: “I really want people to give their honest opinions. It’s fine if you don’t like it.”
Haynes figures it could be another year before the book is in print. At some point he will stop being able to include responses from the survey in the book, but he is considering leaving the survey open for responses anyway: “Let people who want to give their input share their experiences. I don’t think I would shut it down.”
[Editor's note: This story has been edited to reflect the current status of the school of Music's move to the Hamel Music Center.]
