The Edifice Complex

For years the nation has experienced what I call an Edifice Complex.  That is naming of buildings after a major donor, or person held in high-regard  This old expression came back to mind on Saturday when I heard that The University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) would be renaming Camp Randall Stadium, with the field to be named Barry Alvarez Field. Showing the affinity in this time for recognition, the stadium will be now be referred to as Barry Alvarez Field at Camp Randall Stadium. This post is an exploration of the edifice complex and how it relates to Barry Alvarez and a few other area projects.  

Barry Alvarez Field at Camp Randall Stadium
New name effective 2022
UW Football

Let me begin with Camp Randall Stadium. Camp Randall received its name from t then Wisconsin Governor Alexander Randall. I guess in itself the edifice complex. He would also serve as Postmaster General of the United States.  Camp Randall was a training ground for Union Soldiers, and many of the former trained soldiers did not like the idea of this becoming a site for housing or other uses, so the state gave it to the University, who then started to use it for athletic fields. Since then, it has evolved into one of the largest college football stadiums in the nation. As a stadium it can seat 82,000 people, all for a few Saturday afternoons in the fall. The name Camp Randall has continued for many generations, and will continue until next year, when it is amended with Barry Alvarez Field being first two words in the name. The change takes effect.  In my mind they (UW administration) bastardized it by giving credit to a former state employee.  

Alvarez house, Fitchburg, WI
Google maps

Like many treasured traditional names, the UW did not wish to change the name of Camp Randall Stadium, but they apparently had a desire to recognize Alvarez so they are now naming the field after Barry Alvarez. What does "Alvarez Field at Camp Randall Stadium" actually mean?  If I break it down, it seems that the playing field is named after Alvarez, but the structure itself remains named Camp Randall Stadium.  Apparently a field is different from a stadium, which raises the question is a stadium different than a field? How does this work if I were to do a Venn Diagram?  Is the field within the stadium, or part in and part out? For generations Camp Randall Stadium also meant the playing surface. This begs the question if the two are separable, how was the field before this titled? Did we have Untitled field at Camp Randall Stadium? In actuality this is simply a nod to the edifice complex in recognition for Barry Alvarez's work as a civil service employee. 

Alvarez came to coach football at the UW after a brief stint as defensive coordinator at Notre Dame under the Irish then head coach Lou Holtz. Alvarez also served as UW's athletic director for many years. Yes, he had winning programs. Yet, the guy was a state employee.  This is like giving a gold star to every person in a class room. He was doing the job the University hired him to do, with the idea that he would be successful. He certainly made a good deal of money and earned prestige off of the University to afford a very large house in Fitchburg, built a few decades ago. I recall doing a presentation on GIS, Geographic Information Systems, to students at McFarland Middle School about 20 years ago, and the students were most impressed when I showed them an air photo of where Alvarez's house was located. For me, I think it is wrong name a major facility after a former state employee who was doing the job for which he was hired.  

Given that only the field is named after him, that means when you attend the game you are going to sit in Camp Randall Stadium, and watch the game played on Barry Alvarez Field. I guess the ticket should simply be for Camp Randall Stadium, section 10, row 35 seat 35, as an example. But, I am sure they will add Barry Alvarez Field at Camp Randall Stadium.

The Sun Prairie School District faced a similar dilemma. They rebuilt Ashley Field, their long time football stadium to orient the field north to south from its long-time east-west orientation.  Playing games with the sun setting in the west was problematic. However, they will have two high schools, Sun Prairie East and Sun Prairie West, play at the field.  They received a large donation from the Bank of Sun Prairie to offset part of the cost of construction, and they decided on a similar tack as UW, but reversed. It will be Bank of Sun Prairie Stadium at Ashley Field.  What does that mean? Is teh playing surface Ashley Field, and the seats Bank of Sun Prairie Stadium? Is the second part of the name supposed to be more important or the first part of the name? What takes precedence, a field or a stadium?  In our athletic centrist world this is important to know.  What came first, the chicken or the egg? Ashley Field is important to those of us who grew up in Sun Prairie, and now that they divided the city by high school, they wished to keep some old familiarity. It could be worse, it could be AmFam Field, the new name of the Brewer Stadium, for why I wonder, did not American Family lower my rates instead of investing in such advertising dollars?  What does it say about our nation and economy when a major manufacturer, Miller, loses out to an insurance company for naming rights?

Bank of Sun Prairie Stadium at 
Ashley Field, Under construction, Sun Prairie, WI
Google maps

A few days before the announcement by the UW naming Barry Alvarez Field at Camp Randall Stadium, it was announced that Jim and Sue Bakke (of Sub-Zero/Wolf/Cove) donated $20 million toward a $113.2 million recreational facility for the west part of the UW campus. This building will be known as the Bakke Recreational and Well-Being Center.  Last year the UW completed construction of the Nicholas Center which replaced the 1983 constructed Southeast Recreational Facility. With a construction cost of $70 million, this project received a donation from from Abe and Nancy Nicholas of $20 million.  What does it say about our construction when the life span is less than forty years? The Southeast Recreational Facility has a definitive bureaucratic name which well fits with Madison. Naming rights for athletic venues at the UW pretty much started on the campus with the Kohl Center. 

Artist Rendering Bakke Recreational and Wellness Center
UW Madison

Wealthy businessman and former US Senator Herb Kohl donated about a third of the cost of the construction of the UW sports venue for hockey and basketball and hence it was called the Kohl Center, or as I refer to it as the Herb Garden. He donated $25 million of the over $76 million cost. Abe Nicholas donated $10 million and had the practice area named after him. Abe apparently decided he needed greater recognition and later gave an additional 20 million dollars for a recreation center to bear his name. Some persons actually donate to academic causes, such as Grainger Foundation (for alumni David Grainger) who donated for part of the construction cost of Grainger Hall for the UW Business School.

In the village of McFarland, the current library was built in 2005 and after construction was started E D Locke, president of the local bank at the time, gave $600,000 of the over $5 million construction cost and now has that library named after him; my local library is known as the E D Locke Library. Locke, decided not to give it in the name of the bank but his own name. The library, at the time, raised just over $1 million in donations to the construction cost, with his gift the obvious largest. Since the taxpayers funded the vast majority of the cost, at over four million, I wondered why it was not named McFarland Taxpayer Library. Where is the recognition for the people who do not make millions? 

Artist Rendering Bank of Sun Prairie at Ashley Field
Main entrance
Sun Prairie School District

The edifice complex is an interesting part of US times past and present. Many years ago there were libraries built by Andrew Carnegie, such as the beautiful library in Baraboo which I sometimes went to back in 1985, and was named the Baraboo Carnegie library.  We don't build structures like that anymore.  Hence, some donors go into oblivion, like the Pettits in Milwaukee who donated for the Bradley Center (named after Jane Bradley Pettits father founder of the Allen-Bradley Company. This facility met the dust in 2018, serving only about thirty years as an arena for the Bucks and Marquette basketball. Apparently, back in the early 2000's the NBA Commissioner, Mr Silver, decided it was a few thousand sq ft short of what the NBA desired and put in on the block.  What does it say about our culture when a building has a life of only thirty years?  Worse yet, what does it say when one czar can make a decision about a sports team needing a new arena or stadium. Hence, we had another major state funded stadium. The $500 million project was funded by using one-half public monies, $203 million from the state, and $47 million from the city of Milwaukee. Owner and naming rights covered the remaining costs--plus cost over runs.

E D Locke Library Preview, Jan 8, 2006
McFarland Thistle, ED Locke Library News Paper Archives

The nation has a love-hate relationship with the wealthy, Universities and many private non governmental organizations like the donations, but at the same time complain about wealth in too few hands. Can we as a nation have it both ways? Of course, most of these large donations are accomplished for tax purposes and are placed out over many years. 

The McKenzie family of Madison donated for the McKenzie Boys and Girls Club in Sun Prairie.  They made their money in construction and real estate. I had the unfortunate opportunity to meet with the patriarch of the family, Richard, who, because he simply had money, thought he could get the city land use plan changed so he could develop over 200 acres in the south of the city. Land he bought knowing the land use plan and zoning requirements. The land was was slated for permanent farm land preservation, and was miles beyond the city urban service area. Or course, he came across a rather immovable force in this matter. That would be me. He then started a campaign which lasted several years, and had its own registered political action group, to get me thrown out. I am proud to say I out lasted that effort. When he did not get what he wanted, he illegally constructed two dwelling units in what was supposed to be a barn. I am not sure if giving money to the construction of a Boys and Girls Club assuaged his guilt, but I doubt it.  He probably knew the change in city governance, I think was then Mayor Pfaff, would allow him to get the code amended to keep what he illegally did. I did not see him having any remorse over his pitiful actions, or a desire to destroy an individual. It only set for me that at times principal can overcome money, but it took a great deal of effort and heartache on my part. I guess it is good that some of his money was put to a good use. 

E D Locke Library, McFarland, WI
McFarland Library

In some respects, naming, can be fleeting. Just ask the Pettit family. Yet, Camp Randall has been around along time, and I suspect may always see reconstructions before it goes to the dust.  Yet, does a man who was doing his job as a civil servant deserve such an honor? Really, Barry Alvarez Field at Camp Randall Stadium?  The fascination with naming makes a donor look good, or a civil servant with the last name Alvarez, but is it not dismissive of others who make payment or donation, or did grand works? The Edifice Complex is well at work, but some humility is needed.