The La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison plans to move into one of the oldest buildings on campus and rename the facility for former U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl.
The Capital Times reports that the university's Board of Regents has approved a $57 million plan to renovate Music Hall. The building’s stone exterior is deteriorating, the mechanical systems are past life expectancy, and the building lacks sprinklers.
Built in 1880, Music Hall was designed as a place where all of the university’s 481 students could gather. Today, enrollment exceeds 51,000.
Gifts and grants will pay for the overhaul of the facility, no state dollars will be used. The La Follette School of Public Affairs has announced that Herb Kohl Philanthropies will donate $30 million for the project--$20 million for renovations and $10 million to support ongoing programming. Music Hall will be renamed Herb Kohl Hall.
The updates will modernize the interior of Herb Kohl Hall while maintaining the building’s character, the university says
Kohl was a philanthropist and department store magnate who represented Wisconsin in the U.S. Senate for more than two decades.
Set to open in 2029, the updated building will serve as La Follette’s new home. The school now is scattered across 28 places on campus.
The University Opera and the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture now are housed in Music Hall. The department will move to Helen C. White Hall later this year. The university is working with the opera to find an approproiate space.
