Photos by Retiring Guy
Wisconsin State Journal, 11/12/2024
A featureless concrete wall that has loomed over Downtown Madison since the 1960s is being reinvented by a pair of local muralists as a colorful homage to the city.
The Brutalist-style, 10-story apartment building at the corner of North Henry and West Gilman streets is hard to miss beside the older, shorter and more ornate architecture of the adjacent Mansion Hill Historic District. Its owner, Madison-based developer and property manager Steve Brown Apartments, is leaning into that visibility.
The entire southeastern side of the building above the first floor — all 4,500 square feet of it — will soon be adorned with some of Madison’s best-known critters. A swallowtail butterfly on a milkweed plant, a bumblebee on a sprig of phlox, a blue jay carrying acorns and a towering sandhill crane, all represented in a high-contrast graphic style inspired by old “greetings from” postcards and national park posters, will stand out against a quilt-like backdrop of wildflowers.
The Henry Gilman Apartments is an early example of an Isthmus student housing high-rise. Construction was completed in 1968. The property contains 121 studio and one-bedroom dwelling units with an average floor plan of 320 square feet.
Now we need someone to spruce up this Madison Yards blank space.
Other Madison murals:
Huge mural provides showcase for new mixed-use development on East Washington in Madison WI. (10/2/2022)
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