Wisconsin Historical Society unveils designs for new History Center in Madison

Amy Schwabe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Updated ·2 min read
The new Wisconsin History Center in Madison will include a large lobby with room for visitors, field trip students and public programming.
The new Wisconsin History Center in Madison will include a large lobby with room for visitors, field trip students and public programming.

On June 13 the Wisconsin Historical Society unveiled what will be inside the new Wisconsin History Center, which will replace the current history museum across from the Capitol in Madison.

Construction is slated to begin next year, with the museum opening a little over two years later, in 2026.

The new museum will allow more of the state's artifacts to be displayed as the exhibit space will more than double, and the Historical Society estimates 200,000 guests will visit every year, including 60,000 students — double the current visitation.

The history center will be 100,000 square feet spread over five floors.

  • The first floor will have a large, open lobby with a retail store, classrooms for students on field trips, and space for public programming. There will also be a wooden staircase built to resemble an ancient dugout canoe, inspired by two dugout canoes that were discovered in Lake Mendota last year.

  • The second floor will be a rotating exhibit gallery with room for traveling exhibits as well as some by local historical organizations and other community groups.

  • The third floor will have two permanent galleries. The first will highlight Wisconsin's identity in American popular culture with items such as a 1969 Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. The second gallery will focus on people's experiences with American government, including stories of Wisconsin's sovereign nations. There will also be opportunities on the third floor for people to explore the Wisconsin Historical Society's genealogical records.

  • The fourth floor will be all about being outdoors in Wisconsin, with exhibits about agriculture, hunting, fishing, boating and Great Lakes shipwrecks. The outdoors theme will be enhanced with two adjoining terraces overlooking Lake Mendota, Capitol Square and the Driftless area in the distance.

  • The fifth floor — which will have a rooftop terrace — will be for events.

In March the Wisconsin Historical Society revealed a preliminary architectural rendering of the building design. It shows a five-story building with "stacked terraces" and a lenticular facade on a rotated building form that is designed to allow visitors to see a different view of Madison depending on which floor of the building they're on.

The society is working with exhibit designers Ralph Appelbaum Associates, planning firm SmithGroup and Continuum Architects + Planners to design and plan the museum.

The 2019-2021 state capital budget included $100 million for the history center, with $70 million to come from state funds and $30 million from donations. Since then, the project budget has increased by $60.5 million due to inflation and higher-than-expected project costs. As a result, Gov. Tony Evers proposed in his 2023-2025 budget to increase the state's commitment to $112.3 million, which the legislature's Joint Finance Committee approved. The Wisconsin Historical Society also increased their fundraising goal, and as of now, they have raised $39.5 million of $66.5 million.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Historical Society unveils Wisconsin History Center designs