Regent (aka University Heights) is one of Madison’s first suburbs, platted in 1893. Located close to the University, its curvilinear streets and beautiful vistas attracted many university families. It also contains homes produced by several famous architectures (i.e.  Keck and Keck, George W. Maher, Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright). Regent’s retail and cultural amenities are mainly contained to the small commercial node at University and Highland Avenues. A good amount of retail and cultural amenities are located in the University of Wisconsin, which surrounds Regent to the North and East, and the Wingra Park neighborhood to the south. The western side of Regent includes a large cemetery and several newer neighborhoods that contain great park amenities.

The Regent neighborhood also does well with high density, good public transit access, well ranked public high school and elementary school, a couple dedicated bike lanes, a good # of smaller rentals, great tree canopy, and a very safe community. For Regent to become a great urban neighborhood it needs more retail and cultural amenities within its borders, more affordable for-sale options, better park amenities, and improved urban massing along University Ave,

Click here to view my Regent Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Solid urban density,
* Quality access to public transit
* Overall good ADA and sidewalk infrastructure but some dated ADA curb cuts.
* Good connectivity but some pretty curvilinear streets.
* Good bike infrastructure with dedicated bike lanes running the length of the northern and southern borders. A couple dedicated bike stations as well.
* Great generational diversity with a good mix of kids, students, professors.
* Decent walkable schools with a quality public high school and elementary school located within the neighborhood.
* Good # of rental options. 1-beds range anywhere in the 1Ks, 2-beds btwn 1.5K-2.5K, 3-beds btwn 1.5K to the high 2Ks.
* Solid tree canopy.
* Attractive 1910s-1930s single family homes.
* Very safe community overall.
* Okay cultural amenities within Regent including several restaurants, a couple of bars & cafes, a couple art galleries concentrated mostly at the University and Highland intersections. As Regent is surrounded by the UW to the North and East lots of museums and Cineplex, and performing are nearby. To the south are more cultural and retail amenities in the Wingra Park and Greenbush business districts.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Residents here are generally very well off but the student population does add some economic diversity.
* Not a ton of for sale housing diversity. Most for sale housing product is pretty expensive here. A handful of 1-bed condos that sell btwn 200K-400K,  Some 2-bed selling btwn 275K-550K, 3 & 4 beds sell btwn 375K-1 M
* Park and recreational space are a bit limited within Regent to a couple pocket parks and 2 medium sized recreational parks next to the High School and Middle Schools. While not necessarily walkable to most residents there are two large parks west of the Regent neighborhood and a couple pool.
* Retail amenities are pretty limited within the Regent neighborhood but include a supermarket, a couple gift shops & banks, some dessert joints, an antique store, a couple salons, and a couple churches. Decent # of retail amenities in the Wingra Park commercial districts several blocks south.
* Urban massing and streetscaping along University is a mixed bag of historic bldgs, mid-century more autocentric structures, and more urban modern mixed-use bldgs.