Q-15, The last 'Temporary' building finally removed, August, 2004
Named “Quonset” Huts because they were made in Quonset, R.I.
The UW acquired a total of 15 from the military after WWII. The military used them to house
soldiers, and the university used them when returning vets flooded the campus after the war
ended. The campus population doubled in the 1945-46 school year. The university was drastically
short of housing and classrooms. The housing shortage forced students to live in
trailers near Camp Randall, in a
tent colony along Lake Mendota and as far away as the
barracks at the Badger Army Ammunition Plant near Baraboo.
Residing behind
Old Engineering for almost 60 years. The other
Quonset classrooms (located on Library Mall) were dismantled in the 1950s and 1960s. But Q-15
continued to house the foundry of the art department's metal artists until they moved near the
Kohl Center.
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Quonset huts had rounded roofs that reach all the way to the ground and were developed for the
Navy during World War II by a firm near Quonset, R.I.
Q-15, The last 'Temporary' building finally removed, August, 2004