It’s not often the Midwest’s Dairy State is compared with a kingdom in Southeast Asia, but one corner of Madison, Wisconsin, feels plucked straight from a royal Thai garden. Situated amidst two municipal parks along Lake Monona, Olbrich Botanical Gardens is a lush, tranquil respite in the heart of Madtown. It features not only a conservatory of tropical botanicals, outdoor herb gardens, and native Midwestern meadows, but also a strikingly ornate Thai sala — or pavilion — carefully constructed from interlocking Thai-crafted teak with delicate gold-leaf trim around its pointed gables.
The gardens were originally designed in the 1920s by University of Wisconsin-Madison law school graduate Michael Olbrich and Prairie School landscape designer O.C. Simonds, and have continued to evolve ever since. In 1952, Olbrich Botanical Gardens officially opened, complete with a rose garden, now known as the English-style Sunken Garden. A greenhouse was added a few years later, and the indoor tropical conservatory opened in 1991. Today, visitors can stroll 16 acres of spacious outdoor grounds cultivated in distinct landscapes, from an herb garden to the “Moonlight Meadow” to the Royal Thai Garden with its unique pavilion, or take guided tours aboard an electric tram. While admission to the outdoor gardens and Thai pavilion is free, weather permitting, the year-round indoor conservatory costs $6 for adult entry.
The Thai pavilion was gifted to the University of Wisconsin-Madison by the government of Thailand and a Thai alumni group from UW-Madison in 2001. The university has long hosted one of the largest Thai student populations among universities in the U.S. (thanks to a strong international student program), and the gift was formally approved by the Thai Royal family. The lush lakeside botanical gardens, already a beloved city attraction, were a natural fit to become the pavilion’s permanent home.
The Thai pavilion is a multimillion-dollar handcrafted relic
In Thailand, salas are national symbols; they’ve become timeless architectural structures and a recognizable element of the country’s landscape. They’re carefully crafted using interlocking wood joints rather than screws or nails and used as temporary respites, from garden oases to roadside food stands. The sala gifted to UW-Madison and housed at Olbrich Botanical Gardens is no exception to the careful craft and art of these structures…