Bulldozed History: a Visual Representation of Greenbush

Abstract

The Greenbush neighborhood was once a vibrant immigrant community in Madison, Wisconsin. In 1962, the neighborhood was razed to be redeveloped, and after sitting empty for years a hospital and several apartment buildings were built on the site. This renewal came under a dubious process involving outright disrespect of the original residents. Through literature review, archival research, and interviews with former residents, we are visually reconstructing a sense of what the old Greenbush was like, and the effect that the renewal had around the Madison community. A significant portion of our research is devoted to memory comics, a tool to visually re-create one’s memories to get a more human sense of place. Our conclusions outline the main takeaways that the former residents who we interviewed had of the urban renewal process and the legacy it has today.