The final piece of a decade-long revival of UW-Madison’s recreation facilities is slated to start this year with a $10 million reconstruction of its Near East Playfields.
The Near East Playfields along Observatory Drive are set for a facelift later this year as UW-Madison installs a set of turf fields to replace the natural grass and add a stormwater management system underneath.
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The Near West Playfields were the first of a four-part revitalization of UW-Madison's Recreation and Wellbeing department master plan and were completed in 2017. The final piece of the plan, the Near East Playfields, is expected to be started this year as UW-Madison adds another set of turf fields.
Kierstin McHugh and Jacob Howard practice their soccer skills at the Near West Fields at UW-Madison. The Near East Playfields to the east will feature a turf field similar to the Near West Playfields, with four smaller soccer pitches and an NCAA-regulation size field overlapping one another.
The Bakke Recreation & Wellbeing Center, which replaced the former Natatorium, is nearing completion and is expected to open next month.
UW-Madison's Near East Playfield is currently natural grass, making it difficult to use in the colder fall and spring months when the ground is frozen. Recreation and Wellbeing department staff expect to lengthen the seasons of intramural and club sports following the installation of turf fields.
Fave 5: Reporter Kimberly Wethal shares her favorite stories of 2022
In the weeks before I joined the Wisconsin State Journal in September, I was told this: Remember that a higher education institution is like their own city. It has its own character and struggles, defined by the students who learn there and the faculty who teach them.
I have seen this over and over again, and it was particularly clear when I visited UW-Platteville at Richland a week after the University of Wisconsin System ordered degree-fulfilling classes to cease because of low enrollment. During my visit, I found many of the devastated students to be emotionally invested in their campus community — and committed to saving it.
After budget cuts and consolidations, the campus' enrollment is down 90% from 2014, and UW-Platteville was ordered to shutter the campus.
With record enrollment contributing to the housing crunch, UW-Madison lured students out of dorms by offering incentives to live elsewhere.
Management companies are seeing some of their housing in prime areas sell out three to four weeks faster than previous years.
A new Early Learning Center that opened in 2021 at MATC's Truax campus doubled capacity, and a facility at the Goodman South campus could be next.
UW-Madison doctorate student Kirstan Gimse found the courage to go back to school a decade ago from a chemistry professor she would wait on.
