Located in the heart of downtown Madison, the Wisconsin State Capitol has a history and set of experiences that provide residents and visitor with a variety of options. From guided tours to a 360-degree view of the city, the building attracts visitors from near and afar for a variety of reasons. However, taking advantage of the empty space that surrounds and encompasses the State Capitol Grounds could enable many more significant experiences that would drive an economic and cultural impact for the whole city.
The whole of downtown Madison, Wisconsin has been seemingly built around the State Capitol Building, with many roads literally leading to it. That has allowed the surrounding area to become home to many restaurants and shops as well as a variety of events and activities that take place in downtown Madison throughout the year. Once visitors engage with these stores and events tough, there’s very little on the Capitol Ground for them to engage with beyond the Captial itself. That’s in stark contrast to other locations that provide visitors with a variety of options when it comes to monuments and attractions.
The State Capitol Ground certainly has the space to feature these sorts of attractions, as there is a tremendous amount of empty space in every direction. From empty flowerbeds to wide-open walkways to patches of ground with nothing but grass, there’s plenty of space to install anything from a monument to a statue to a landmark, and other locations have been able to do far more with far less space.
While there are some statues and monuments at various corners of the Capitol Grounds, these pieces are fairly small and difficult to engage with. The gilded bronze statue “Wisconsin” which symbolizes the state motto “Forward” is impressive, is impressive, it’s location on the top of the Capitol Building limits the engagement viewers can have with it for an entirely different reason. Additionally, statues like “Forward” have been unable to resonate with the surrounding community.
The potential to do something so much more on the Wisconsin State Capitol Grounds is evident, especially since so many people are already coming to the area for the experiences that have been enabled at the Capitol Building. By creating additional attractions to engage these audiences, Madison as a whole could seize on the monumentous potential it has to impact the culture and economy of the region and Wisconsin as a whole.
