Madison’s Herb DeLevie created some of the city’s most distinctive modern homes during his 33-year career as a designer-builder. This first installment explores his early residential work, beginning with the striking 1966 Hurwitz House and continuing through several homes he designed and built for clients as well as for his own family. Influenced by his time at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin and work with modernist architect Richard Neutra, DeLevie embraced unconventional forms, angular lines, varied levels, and open connections between interior spaces. His inventive approach challenged Madison’s expectations of what a modern home could be.

Three Books Worth Knowing - In this edition of Field Notes, Michael Bridgeman highlights three new reads for fans of Madison's built environment: A Keg of Their Best, tracing 180 years of local brewing history and the buildings behind it; The Rise of Breese Stevens Field, the story of the century-old East Washington Avenue stadium and the Madison Blues baseball club that once called it home; and The Gallery of Lost Gargoyles, a whimsical, illustrated look at gargoyles lost (or never built) on 21 Madison buildings.

The former YWCA Building at 122 State Street may get a new life. JD McCormick Properties is proposing to convert the long-vacant building into apartments with ground-floor commercial space. This month's post covers the proposal, currently in early review with the Urban Design Commission, alongside a history of the building from its 1919 opening to the 1970s remodel that obscured architect Harry Alford's original Neo-Classical design.