PHILOSOPHERS’ STONES 

Though only six blocks long, State Street in Madison is a legendary street connecting the State Capital with the University of Wisconsin. This vibrant pedestrian mall is where the social grease of the legislative process mixes with café society, football weekends, political protests, provocative shopping, major cultural centers and social pleasures. Since people watching is the most freely enjoyed, shared activity, PHILOSOPHERS’ STONES was conceived as providing low key cues for individuals to behave in interesting, unexpected ways. A concentrated grouping near the Overture Center provided a respite from the hurley-burley as well as an opportunity to stage planned performances. The rocky woods near the Wisconsin Dells inspired the relationships between the functional sculptural elements and the trees to create an urban landscape for the imagination.

PHILOSOPHERS' STONES functional sculptures integrated into a plaza and six blocks of State Street, Madison, WI:
34 granite, 10 hollow bronze forms in Philosophers Grove near the Capital at Mifflin and State Streets
20 granite forms along State Street and at Confluence- base of Bascom Hill, University of Wisconsin
sizes vary from 9” x 18” x 28” to 30” x 30” x 66” each 2004-2015
with Ken Saiki Design and MSA Engineering in Madison.

but Things changed

In 2015 Madison Mayor Paul Soglin, frustrated with the groups of homeless that gathered one block from the State Capital, ordered the fifty stones of the PHILOSOPHERS’ GROVE removed despite public outcry just as the final stones were being installed six blocks away at the base of Bascom Hill.