News & Notes
News and Notes for the Weeks of 7/10/21 - 7/23/21
A developer is pausing and may likely drop a roughly $40 million housing and commercial project because he can’t secure a large part of the site near the busy corner of Monona Drive and Cottage Grove Road on Madison’s East Side.
-Wisconsin State Journal
Seven developers are proposing massive projects to replace the “functionally obsolete” State Street Campus Garage Downtown for a new public parking structure, intercity bus garage, commercial space and housing.
The proposals, which range in cost from $64 million to $140 million, would rise up to 16 stories and include green roofs and amenities such as rooftop pools, community and study rooms, lounges and outdoor kitchens.
-Wisconsin State Journal
Despite the owner’s objections, Madison may soon act to preserve a limited view of Lake Mendota from the lone Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home Downtown — a home that can barely be seen by the public.
-Wisconsin State Journal
The Madison City Council rejected Tuesday an attempt to preserve the narrow view of Lake Mendota from a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house in Downtown by limiting how tall properties near the landmark home could be developed.
-Wisconsin State Journal
It was a deadly rivalry that shaped the Wonder Bar. In 1927, the infamous mobster Al Capone began pressuring rivals Roger “The Terrible” Touhy and Matt Kolb to become partners with him. When the Touhy gang refused, Capone opened several houses of prostitution in Touhy territory, sparking a gang war, according to a draft city landmark nomination for the Wonder Bar submitted by the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation in late 2008.
-Wisconsin State Journal
A conservative law firm is suing the city of Madison over an ordinance requiring some builders to install specialized glass designed to protect birds from flying into windows.
-Wisconsin State Journal
Under pressure from Downtown merchants, the city of Madison is proposing smaller, less obtrusive bus stations for State Street, though some still say the iconic thoroughfare is the wrong place for transit.
-Wisconsin State Journal
Construction of a hotel at the former home of Madison Area Technical College’s Downtown campus stopped in the spring of 2020 and it’s unclear when work will resume.
-Wisconsin State Journal