[media-credit name=’AJ MACLEAN/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]The Madison Cultural Arts District Committee discussed the second phase of the Overture Center, the construction of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art and the completion of the Capitol Theater and The Playhouse, Tuesday night.

Director of Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Steve Fleischman informed the committee of the rooftop plans for the museum, which will include a sculpture garden, a screening wall for films and a restaurant. The museum is scheduled to open at the end of April 2006.

“It has been incredibly busy preparing for the opening day of the museum,” Fleischman said.

Fleischman asked eight artists to create new works for a special Madison sesquicentennial opening exhibit.

“It deals with the landscape, the history, the people and the culture of the city of Madison,” Fleischman said.

According to Fleischman, the third-floor restaurant will be a “fine-dining” venue capable of seating 60 people indoor with a few outdoor tables. The museum is not operating the restaurant, but two local restaurant owners are coming together to create another “Madison original.”

The museum is still in negotiations and would not release the names of the potential restaurant operators. Fleischman said the 200 block of State Street used to be home to five venues, including Dotty Dumpling’s Dowry, Radical Rye and Masala.

“All those have gone, so this will be a single venue where there used to be many,” Fleischman said. “Among the general public, they are almost uniformly excited [for the restaurant].”

The glass-walled restaurant will overlook the 6,000 square foot sculpture garden, the State Capitol and the old Capitol Theater tower, he added.

The Capitol Theater will open in November, an “aggressive deadline” according to Mike Huffman of Huffman Facility Development, Inc. The most difficult date will be February 2006, he added, which is when the Playhouse must be completed.

“There’s a lot of work to be done,” Huffman said. “We are on schedule, but barely. We are trying to forecast where we are going to have problems.”

The size and shape of the 1,000-seat Capitol Theater performance space will be modified from the previous Oscar Mayer Theater, which held 2,200 people. The Playhouse, formerly the Isthmus theater space, will have a capacity of 330 people.

A “crossroads,” a corridor opening the closed wall currently to the right of the rotunda in the Overture Center, will be completed by February 2006 as well. The corridor will connect the two phases of construction.

The exterior wall of the Capitol Theater must be completed by June 13, so the city can begin State Street reconstruction, Huffman said. The project includes the second half of the 200 block of State Street and Henry Street.

Although the Overture Center and State Street will be under construction simultaneously, Hoffman said construction around the Overture Center will soon clear out. Much of the concrete has been poured, most of the demolition work is done and a crane on Henry Street will not be needed in two weeks, he added.

“I think State Street businesses will be happy to stop hearing the jack hammering,” Hoffman said. “It’s a real juggle of activities.”