Doty

The eventual building of the epic Madison Civic Center known as the Monona Terrace was decades, if not a full generation, in the making.  Frank Lloyd Wright, UW-Madison alum, and eventual designer of the building never saw it himself, yet this very project, unknown to many who admire his work, consumed more of his time and effort than any other project in his lifetime, which consisted of over 700 buildings or residences.  Placement, timing, type of construction and funding would all play a part in the long and difficult history of a place that now nearly outshines the capital itself in terms of scope and nearness to the waters of Lake Monona.

James Doty would have known and understood the critical positioning of this stretch of shoreline, for

he essentially founded Madison and promoted this area over 18 other candidates as the capital of the state.  As the Native Americans had known previous to Doty, the naturally occurring isthmus between two such generously sized lakes, is not particularly common.  The isthmus back in 1829 was primarily flat prairie with a smattering of oaks, so that to a developer and promoter of the frontier settlement, it might have looked like a handmade gift to build.  Doty created a Capitol plat map,

1836 plat. Square to left center the high point of isthmus and chosen for
sight of capital. Monona Terrace eventually directly south.

laying out blocks in a radial patter, the likes of which was not as common in the U.S. as it was in Europe, in this emphasizing the street structures to build around the high point of the 70 foot hill the capital would be built on and to emphasize the extreme natural views southwest.  It would be down this large corridor of view, once named Monona Drive, now Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, that had also sparked Frank Lloyd Wright's imagination, even as a young Madison draftsmen who was at that point commisioned to design boat houses to beautify a shoreline that had been marred by fish shacks.