The new Union South is $95 million worth of fun

About halfway through our tour of the new Union South (which took 90 minutes total to see everything), our guide informed us that the Memorial Union set the standard for the 20th century and the designers of the new union wanted to achieve the same for the 21st. Damned if the new replacement for the forgettable old Union South doesn’t get right up in the historic Memorial Union’s face and say, “Get outta my way, pops.” The slick $95 million facility—on track for a L.E.E.D. Gold environmental rating—boggles the mind if one tries to process it all at once, so let The A.V. Club break down what we saw piece by piece before the grand opening on April 15.

The entrance
Whether you approach from the Northeast corner—bestowed with a hand-etched UW Arboretum scene on the glass—or from the Southeast entrance into the spacious Sun Garden, the wide open floor plan of the ground level is much more inviting than hallways of Memorial Union.

The food
The ground floor features six restaurants, including a pan-Asian joint called Ginger Root where the food gets cooked right in front of you and a pizza place called Urban Slice that features the alarming three-foot calzone Strombozilla, which sounds well worth the $25 to challenge yourself. The surrounding areas include a small indoor/outdoor patio called The Roost with an excellent view—just watch out for the nasty drop-off at the bottom of the steps—a wine and coffee bar, and a seating area near something called a mediascape that will make group projects way less terrible. It’s plenty of food options with plenty of places to hide out while you stuff your face, especially in fall 2011, when all the restaurants’ menus will be fully available.

The indoor venue
The Sett—which almost got slapped with the unintentionally hilarious name The Fun Zone—accounts for three levels of party time, but the centerpiece is the incredible music venue on the ground level. Sleek and dark, the inviting wood interior contains a lot of lumber reclaimed from Wisconsin barns that may actually be newer than the Memorial Union and provides a suitably grown-up environment for getting ripped at the bar, which offers tons of local brews on tap and in bottles. WUD’s music program director told us that Owen Palett’s show this Saturday will be one of the first official concerts in the space, so we won’t have to wait long to see how this baby handles. But there’s no way it could sound worse than the Rathskeller.

The big indoor venue
The 1,300-capacity Varsity Hall—which will be christened Friday by glitter-slinging glam poppers Of Montreal—is a tremendous, wide-open space. The floors were getting finished the day we visited, so we weren’t able to walk around, but we get the feeling that Varsity Hall is a versatile room, good for sweaty dance parties, boring presentations, and whatever else comes up.

The outdoor venue
Nothing very official at the Union South, but there is a set of stairs near the water feature that will double as a performance stage for the marching band. No word on whether this set of steps will even bother trying to compete with the legendary Memorial Terrace.

The movie theater
The Marquee movie theater, with its cool ’20s-style art deco sign, can comfortably seat 350 people and blast their faces with a beautiful screen. Plus, not only are refreshments allowed in the theater, but the cup holders seem to encourage them. That means you’ll be able to pump a steady stream of caffeine into your body for Friday’s midnight showing of the original Tron.

Ben Pierson

The rec room
The lower level of the Sett makes your childhood dream of the ultimate basement look like a flooded-out dungeon by comparison. Pool tables, air hockey, a climbing wall complete with a cool squishy floor, a bar, flat screens mounted on pieces of the old Kohl Center floor, and eight lanes of bowling will easily tank your GPA.

The hotel
We know, right? It doesn’t have a pool, but the Union’s hotel (occupying the 4th and 5th floor) does provide comfortable, modern rooms and easy access to Camp Randall and the Kohl Center. Plus, the elevators only go to those floors if you have a room key, so you don’t have to worry about random drunks stumbling around the halls—just the drunks who are officially staying in the hotel.

Random observations

• The drinking fountains have spouts at the top so you can fill a water bottle more than three-fourths full without spilling all over the space.

• There are special compost bins placed around the building, which we imagine have some way to combat the stench of compost.

• Basically any green chair in the building will do something cool. Cases in point: the weird, swiveling chairs in the Media Lounge and the puzzling, stretchy lounges on the second floor patio.

• Windows at the top of the climbing wall allow for Sett patrons to observe people getting some exercise while they pound beers and onion rings.

• The whole building smells like a new pair of shoes. But it can’t live forever, so get in soon before people start stinking it up.

• The preserved pieces of the old Schlimgen Building (which once stood where the new union is now) are a nice historical touch, if you care about history.