Education Building Renovation & Addition Project

The Education Building on historic Bascom Hill – the heart of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus – serves as home of UW-Madison’s nationally ranked School of Education.  A generous private gift is making it possible to renovate this structure – renewing its historic character, while ensuring that it can meet the School of Education’s 21st century needs.  

Designed in 1899 and constructed in 1900 in the Beaux Arts architectural style, the building originally housed the College of Engineering. Later, Engineering relocated near Camp Randall and, by the early 1950s, Education was the sole occupant.

The building’s design features balanced, layered, symmetrical design and elaborate decorative touches that draw on Greek and Roman architectural themes. Courses of cream-colored bricks in varying sizes form intricate designs on the building’s exterior and create soaring vertical lines with pilasters and columns.

The original architect envisioned a U-shaped building with east and west wings – but only the west wing was added, in 1910.  Substantial alterations made in the early 1950s further strayed from the initial vision. Over the years, age, occasional maintenance lapses, and uncoordinated and sporadic remodeling projects have compromised the building’s character.

Project goals 

The Education Building Renovation and Addition Project, made possible by a $31 million gift from Tashia and John Morgridge, aims to:

• Enhance the building’s historic character, by preserving the original façade, restoring significant exterior features, and by ensuring that the construction of an east wing and the reconstruction of the back side are compatible with the original design.
• Extend the building’s useful life for at least another century by modernizing the infrastructure throughout.
• Serve as a model for how careful renovations of historic buildings can be effectively done with creative and innovative approaches.
• Create a focal point for a college dedicated to teaching and learning, research, and service, and its worldwide community of alumni.
• Provide a welcoming, centralized place where Education students – undergraduates, graduates, and non-traditional – can gather, collaborate, and exchange ideas, and enjoy convenient access to advising and placement services.

Building occupants

The renovated Education Building will house these School of Education units:

• Administrative services: Dean’s Office, Business Services, Information Technology Office, and External Relations Office.
• Student services: Education Academic Services, Minority Student Services, and Educational Placement and Career Services.
• Academic departments/research units: Department of Counseling Psychology (CP), Department of Educational Policy Studies (EPS), Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education (RP&SE), Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis (ELPA), and the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education (WISCAPE)

About the donors

A 1955 graduate of the School of Education, Tashia Frankfurth Morgridge has maintained close ties with the School, serving on its Board of Visitors and, with her husband, sponsoring scholarships to support students preparing to become teachers. A retired special education teacher, she has been a volunteer teacher for the learning disabled.

John Morgridge, a 1955 graduate of the School of Business, has served as president, CEO, and chairman of the board of Cisco Systems, Inc. and is credited with building the San Jose, California company into the leading global supplier of computer networking products.

The couple’s support for UW-Madison also includes gifts to the School of Business; the Morgridge Class of ’51 Scholarship; John P. and Tashia F. Morgridge Scholarship Fund and a chair in reading, both in the School of Education ; and a chair in computer science in the College of Letters and Science. They have supported such building projects as the Morgridge Auditorium in Grainger Hall and the renovation of the Red Gym, which houses the Morgridge Center for Community Service.