"The back of the building is a sraight, nine-story wall of glass, while the front steps down with sloping glass roofs to the first floor. The banking facilities, located on the lower, ground and first levels, penetrate deep into the building, providing generous space for the thirty-foot high atrium. Offices on the upper floors wrap around a fourth floor roof garden on three sides and have unobstructed views of the centrally located Capitol Square. The Wisconsin climate dictated the spacious, airy, internal environment of the building. The use of a high-tech curtain wall eliminated the need for typical spandrel panels and provided an economical solution for the building's skin of white painted aluminum mullions and double-glazed glass in 3 x 5 foot panels. All structural and mechanical elements are exposed and expressed as design elements. A series of air risers and induction units painted blue and water risers painted yellow are visible and are set behind an outer grid of white mullions."

— from Bruce Graham. Bruce Graham of SOM. p68.

The Creator's Words

"First Wisconsin Plaza is one of those buildings that is a fragment of what might have been. It was my dream that the entire Capitol Square be circumscribed by a gallery of glass which would serve as a green space in winter, and as a public square in summer. Obviously, energy is saved in this building, and the building is put to the larger purpose of an architectural experience."

— Bruce Graham. from Bruce Graham. Bruce Graham of SOM. p68.