Evans Scholarship House aces foundation’s vision

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The Wisconsin Evans Scholars Foundation’s new scholarship house is above par, and that’s a good thing.

The state-of-the-art building at UW-Madison will serve as a home for the foundation’s scholarship recipients for years to come.

The Western Golf Association awards full tuition and housing scholarships to high-achieving golf caddies through the foundation. As part of an effort to offer the scholarship program throughout the country, the association called on AG Architecture and J.H. Findorff & Son to renovate its existing Madison Scholarship House.

AG Architecture and Findorff evaluated the site and found it would be too costly to remodel and instead started work on a new 28,755-square-foot building at the same site.

The building sits on the corner of Langdon and Henry streets, in Greek Row, presenting various difficulties to the project team. The tight urban site and detailed masonry work required careful coordination and scheduling and exceptional craftsmanship.

Eric Plautz, project executive at Findorff, said the space constraints meant the masonry operation could only take and store enough materials for a few days of work.

“The complex cast-stone assemblies were first delivered to a storage area near the site, where they were sorted and reloaded onto delivery trucks and sent to the project before being ready for installation,” Plautz said. “The primary location used to store masonry materials was actually on the scaffolding or directly below it.”

The scaffolding set-up for the masonry work on the five-story building involved hydraulic lifts and staging between the project and neighboring structures. Plautz said masons worked with the city of Madison to coordinate street closings and set up a crane to hoist and set the heaviest pieces.

Such dedication to the masonry work resulted in an impressive, timeless building welcomed by its residents and the neighborhood.

The curved, two-story entry façade, outdoor plaza, lounges, study areas and multi-purpose rooms throughout the building support a variety of activities. The new building has bedrooms on every floor, increasing the house’s size to the point that it’s big enough for 90 students.

“This Scholarship House represents a tremendous opportunity not only for the students attending Wisconsin this year, but for generations of promising caddies to come,” said Frank Morley, former chairman of the Western Golf Association.