Arthur Peabody, Our State & University Architect in Madison

media release: Madison Trust for Historic Preservation "Madison Architects" series talk, on Zoom. $10.

Arthur Peabody served as the university architect for the University of Wisconsin from 1905 to 1915 and as the state architect of Wisconsin from 1915 to 1938, designing many of the landmark buildings on the UW-Madison campus and throughout downtown Madison. Peabody was also influential in the university's first comprehensive facilities plan in 1908 and again as an updated plan in 1927. This presentation will highlight some of his most important works as well as the campus facilities plans that continue to influence campus planning today.

Speaker Gary A. Brown, PLA, FASLA is a retired professional landscape architect who worked at the University of Wisconsin for over 38 years where he served as the director of Campus Planning and Landscape Architecture from 2001 to 2023. He also was the university’s historic preservation officer, environmental affairs officer, and the inaugural director of the university’s 300-acre Lakeshore Nature Preserve. He was inducted as a Fellow in the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2004 for his administrative works, serving ASLA on both the state and national level for over 40 years. Since his retirement in early 2023, he has served on the Middleton Hills Neighborhood Association board and on their Architectural Review Committee. He also is a trustee of the Wisconsin Union Association and is working on the history of campus planning at UW-Madison, focusing on the people who created those plans from the 1840s to present day.