November 17, 2022 7:50 PM
Posted: Nov 17, 2022 7:50 PM
MADISON, Wis. — The effort to transform an underutilized concrete platform above a city well overlooking Lake Monona into a new community gathering place has received a significant financial boost.
The Lakefront Porch project is getting $100,000 awards from both the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation and the W. Jerome Frautschi Foundation.
The project calls for a raised wooden platform over part of the platform and the installation of colorful shade structures, seating and a rebuilt community garden. Project leader Emily DeVore said the latest awards are “huge in making us able to construct in 2023 like we’ve planned.”
To date, the project is well over halfway to its $525,000 goal. DeVore said fundraising efforts, which aim to collect another $200,000, will continue through the end of the year.
The site at the corner of East Wilson and South Hancock streets is “a gateway to downtown,” she said, and the project ties in well with other developments and improvements in the area, such as the Lake Monona Waterfront Design Challenge.
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“(The adjacent) First Settlement (neighborhood) really doesn’t have a lot of parks right now, and so to have another public space that’s free and open to the people of this area is going to be really important, especially as we add more housing and more activity on this street and this neighborhood,” she said.
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