I've never been there, I noticed the difference between from my first posting that you had blocked out Pierre, I knew this was a Capitol City as the roads converged on what appears to be an elegant public buildning, and that some of the buildings that surround them appear to be University or Public Servie buildings.
My first choice of Madison was based upon unfortunate trips there (to comfort a friend's wife while he laid in the university hospital dying, the weekend prior to the AICP exam, so I did not see much of the town, but I did read the ICMA green book cover-to-cover, but I'm digresssing and running on so I will now stop). And I did not see much of the town, but noticed the capitol, the hills and the lake.