Built 1888 Designated NHL November 4, 1993 Architectural style Romanesque architecture | NRHP Reference # 93001616 Opened 1888 Added to NRHP 4 November 1993 | |
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Location 550 N. Park St., Madison, Wisconsin Part of Bascom Hill Historic District (#74000065) Architects Henry C. Koch, Allan Conover Similar University of Wisconsi, University of Wisconsi, University of Wisconsi, Agriculture Hall, Lathrop Hall | ||
University of Wisconsin Science Hall is a building on the campus of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. It is significant for its association with Charles R. Van Hise, "who led the Department of Mineralogy and Geology to national prominence" and then served as president of the university. The building was constructed in 1888. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1993.
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Map of Science Hall, Madison, WI 53706, USA
Architecture
Science Hall is a U-shaped, three story building built in a Romanesque Revival motif. It was designed by Milwaukee architect Henry C. Koch and was later altered during construction by Allan D. Conover, a professor of civil engineering at the school. Rhyolite ashlar provides a bright red exterior. The main facade of the building is 205 feet (62 m) long and overlooks Park Street. It features a five-story tower with a hipped roof. Wings stretch to the west from the north and south. There are four three-story towers on each corner of the wings. A small, three-story round tower is found on each courtyard side of the two wings on the western extremity. Roofs were originally slate, but were replaced with asphalt shingles in 1992. A terra cotta hip roll decorates the towers below the roofs. There are sixteen brick chimneys throughout the building, all featuring a corbelled top.
History
When completed in 1888, Science Hall was one of three instructional facilities at the University of Wisconsin. It originally hosted courses in geology, geography, physics, zoology, limnology, botany, anatomy, bacteriology, and medicine. The building helped to cement the university as one of the nation's leading geology schools. Science Hall was home to the first American courses in sedimentation, oceanography, and engineering geology. This was due in large part to its leading geologist, Charles R. Van Hise. Other prominent scientists associated with the building are geologist Charles Kenneth Leith, geomorphologist Armin K. Lobeck, physicist Robert W. Wood, physicist Earle M. Terry, physicist Edward Bennett, and anatomist Charles Russell Bardeen.