Landscape Architect Articles

Holy Cow, or Bully for Bulls02-19-09 | News

Holy Cow, or Bully for Bulls

The Madison Urban Design Commission seeks a new signage code that strikes a balance between creativity and “visual pollution.” Is the local Octopus Car Wash an eyesore, creative, or just an awesome car washer?

We read that Madison, Wis. is ready to update its 27-year-old sign code to clarify and encourage creativity. The city, under the authority of the Urban Design Commission (UDC), seeks to, as the Wisconsin Journal says, “strike a balance between First Amendment rights, fast-changing technology, creativity and visual pollution.”

The main hurdles will be electronic message boards and billboards.

Good luck with that!

One person in Madison suggests adding a Raisinets box to the "Nail's Tales" concrete, steel, stone and resin sculpture of footballs at Camp Randall Stadium. The sculpture is UW alum Donald Lipski.

Online comments from Madisonites regarding the proposed signage code ranged from city priorities to amusing suggestions:

“We continue to raise bus fares and still pay those drivers more than fire and policemen…we still have streets with potholes that swallow cars…we still have drunk driving legislators and we’re worried about an octopus and signs?”

Another post advises a three-step plan:

“I propose we cover every square inch of the Humanities Building with neon signs, preferably vintage ones that used to hang in taverns.
Put a huge burlap sack over the glass building on the square.
Create a huge Raisinets box to put around two-thirds of that hideous Nail’s Tales sculpture by Camp Randall so it looks like the footballs at the top are theater candy spilling out of the box.

The city’s creativity was on display back in 2006, when the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board debuted CowParade Wisconsin, offering more than 100 painted fiberglass cows for sale, joining the more than 1.2 million dairy cows that call Wisconsin home. The cows raised “big moolah,” about $550,000 towards building the American Family Children's Hospital and supporting other local charities. Note: Regarding cattle with horns: Danish Red, White Park and Texas Longhorns are all breed of cattle in which both bulls and cows have horns. Conversely, Angus and the Red Poll breeds are hornless, be they cow or bull.