facebook-wisconsinproject

The trees reveal the passage of time in rephotography projects. A seedling in the 1950s is an overgrown tree turned stump half century later. The Hi-Way 8 in Ladysmith has survived severe storms for decades and the the influx of chain hotels and restaurants. The rates are cash-only cheap (less than $45 with taxes for two). The room we last stayed in had a vintage pink tile bathroom and a microwave and a coffee maker. Since the 1990s, we stayed there each time we traveled to Ladysmith to see dance performances at ChaliceStream.

The important art in Milwaukee was once housed in the basement of the county owned 1958 War Memorial Center--located on a street named after Abraham Lincoln. The futuristic Eero Saarinen building has been expanded to accommodate the growing collection of art and programs based on the designs of two additional architects: Kahler completed a brutalist concrete gallery expansion to the east in 1975 and Santiago Calatrava completed a white and glass winged wing to the south in 2001). A third expansion is again being contemplated for this crazy quilt of a building at 700 Art Museum Drive.

Spotted on a spring bike ride, the Serendipity Storage facility in Appleton is described online as: "Categorized under Household and Commercial Storage, our records show it was established in 1995 and incorporated in Wisconsin, current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of $180,000 and employs a staff of approximately 3." Shopping for appliances and furniture in 2011, we checked Craigslist where we found people liquidating items they'd found in a storage space they bought. A&E premiered the reality TV show Storage Wars in December 2010 thus indicating some advanced stage consumerism side-effect where ordinary people paid monthly rent to store material possessions they would ultimately lose.

Sometimes hidden in the trees, buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright haunt the landscape of Wisconsin. Taliesin holds forth in Spring Green offering guided tours while the Annuciation Greek Orthodox Church hovers in Milwaukee offering a futuristic spiritual retreat. Racine is graced with the Johnson Wax headquarters and Wingspread both commissioned by Herbert Fisk Johnson, Jr. about 1938-39. Family continues to run the company, but Johnson's house, Wingspread, was donated to the The Johnson Foundation twenty years later in 1959 for use as an international conference center emphasizing causes related to water, health, and community.