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Saunter Across Southern Wisconsin

Skyline Additions

Two eye-catching additions to the Madison skyline are the Overture Center for the Arts and the adjoining Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMCA) with its three-story, glass-enclosed stairway that juts out toward State Street.

“We have become an icon for Madison,” said Erika Monroe-Kane, director of communications for MMCA.

However, it is the museum’s collection and programming that draw visitors to its four galleries.

“We select art that we think will be compelling, get people involved,” said Monroe-Kane. “We display a range of styles and media.”

With rotating exhibits from its 6,000-piece permanent collection and guest artists, “there is always something new.”

At the Overture Center for the Arts, the 2,255-seat Overture Hall was designed to accommodate large-set traveling Broadway shows such as “Phantom of the Opera” while also hosting concerts and serving as home to the Madison Opera, the Madison Ballet, the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.

The center also features three other smaller performance spaces, four art galleries and the 1928 Capitol Theater, which was renovated to its original ornate appearance.

Campus Living Room

The University of Wisconsin’s multifaceted Memorial Union, which is wrapping up a $100 million, seven-year renovation this year, is a center of campus life.

“We are known as the campus living room,” said Shauna Breneman, the Union’s communications director.

The Union, whose original building was constructed in 1928, has more than 10 restaurants, where you can get made-to-order sandwiches, pizza and fudge-bottom pie — “which has been here as long as the Union has been here” — and the Freshman 15 at the Daily Scoop, which features 15 scoops of ice cream and five toppings.

The Union is famous for its outdoor terrace overlooking Lake Mendota and its approximately 1,000 iconic metal sunburst chairs and the smell of brats from the Brat Stand.

The Union also has a 1,165-seat concert venue, an art gallery and studios where groups can arrange art classes.

Royal Gift

Olbrich Gardens, Madison’s serene 16-acre botanical oasis, has a colorful, aromatic and diverse collection of plants and grasses spread among 13 gardens. Among them are a traditional English-style garden enclosed by a shrub hedge, a rose garden with a limestone two-story tower and a sunken garden with an 80-foot-long reflecting pool that leads the eye toward Lake Monona.

What makes Olbrich stand out from other botanical gardens is its red-and-gold Thai pavilion, a gift to the University of Wisconsin from the Thai government and the Thai chapter of the university’s alumni association.

The ornate 40-foot-long, 30-foot-high building, known as a sala in Thailand, features gold leaf etchings, a lacquer finish and intricate decorations. It is one of only four outside Thailand.

“It is considered a gift from the king,” said Jeff Epping, Olbrich’s director of horticulture.