MICROTONES by Chris Lay, associate publisher

For a brief and shining moment, construction projects have quieted down around Library Mall on the UW-Madison campus. That bustling knot of food carts and foot traffic nestled between the end of State Street and Bascom Hill is, for now, largely free of the eyesores associated with the march of progress. The most recent project to tie up its loose ends is the addition of Alumni Park. With Memorial Union on one side and the Red Gym on the other, this tiny strip of greenway will supposedly be a hub for those returning students for whom the harsh realities of adulthood have not yet extinguished the flame of school spirit.

Alumni Park is not that friendly for lounging, or even lingering much longer than it takes to check out the exhibits and then move on to either the nearby Kollege Klub or scope out a seat next to that one comically oversized chair. And don’t even get me started on the painfully goofy statue of Bucky perched atop a pile of books. The exhibits installed around the park, though... those are definitely worth a peek. Highlighting various contributions to the world from UW graduates, they’re as lofty as Adam Steltzner’s work as lead engineer on the Mars rover Curiosity and as pop-culture-nugget-y as the two guys who founded The Onion. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim is on display in miniature, as is the old-school front end of a bronzed Harley Davidson. Wander toward the docks and you’ll find the artifact associated with Mary Lasker, former president of the Birth Control Federation of America (though her plaque fails to mention this).

There’s of course a website that goes along with this oddly specific little sculpture park. Once you get the hang of the overly complex navigation, the site does a respectable job of fleshing out the bits and pieces found around the park, which is nice since they’re scattered willy nilly and not always the easiest things to spot (I made a couple of laps during my first visit trying to find the Onion one).

Stop by when you’re in the area for whatever reason and see for yourself. It’s a neat little spot that manages to keep a sense of fun about itself despite being loaded with what I can only presume were hundreds of concessions from each member of the committee that designed it.