John Nolen's 1911 "Madison: A Model City" and "Voices of the Lake" Sasaki's 2023 Master Plan
A Virtual Event:
In 1909, a group of 300 Madisonians met to consider commissioning a comprehensive plan that would guide the future growth and development of Wisconsin’s capitol city. By a unanimous vote, John Nolen, a landscape architect based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and one of America’s leading town planning and civic design professionals, was hired to prepare the plan. That plan, “Madison: A Model City”, included Nolen’s vision of connecting the Capitol to the lake. Though Nolen’s plan was never fully realized, over the years it has remained an inspiration for development of Lake Monona’s waterfront. Now, a new major planning initiative, sponsored by the City of Madison and Friends of Nolen Waterfront, is again drawing Madison’s attention to its downtown lakefront. “Voices of the Lake” is a new master plan for the Lake Monona waterfront, introduced to the public by a design team at Sasaki Associates, Denver office, in 2023. This presentation will focus on John Nolen’s 1911 model city plan and then look at how new voices and ideas have informed the current plan to re-envision the future of Madison’s signature lakefront park.