• DreamBikes makes dream jobs for Milwaukee teens By Julie Lawrence
• The Suburban Apologist & Revisionist By Brewtown Gumshoe
• Economic development follows the whistle of passenger rail By Tom Still
• Milwaukee weighs street spending increase By Sean Ryan
• State pushes back on suggestion that Talgo bid was rigged By Andrew Weiland
• Transit elsewhere draws company away from Milwaukee By Julia Taylor
• Water School might be split between Greenfield Ave., Reed St. Yards sites By Tom Daykin
• CNT takes location efficiency analysis to the national level By Kaid Benfield
• County needs more transit options if economy to thrive, business leaders say By Lyndsay Thomas
• Common Council approves Talgo, Ingeteam deals By Pete Millard
• Can Roads Control Your Driving? The answer is YES By John Michlig
• Where to get startup cash now By CNN
• How transit cuts create residential “no-man’s land” By Julia Taylor
• Residents get Mercy project pushed back By Sean Ryan
• Waukesha County Opts Out Of Regional Transit; Milwaukee Should Do The Same With Water By James Rowen
• Talgo train factory lease wins final council approval By Tom Daykin
• Sales tax should fund Milwaukee County’s mass transit By Julia Taylor
• MSOE Students Present Design Ideas for the Marcus Center Garage Site By Dave Reid
• Energy summit spotlights clean-tech opportunities By Thomas Content
• Down With “Avid Cyclists” By Michael Druker
• Former Gas Light Co. complex being converted to offices By Tom Daykin
• Rail backer Bauman questions city deal with train maker Talgo By Tom Daykin
• Scott Walker: A Vote for Gridlock, on the Road and in the Capitol By Charlie Rosenberg
• 90-year-old has pedal power aplenty By Jim Stingl

March 29, 2010

Lecture by Léon Krier

March 29, 2010 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm

Léon Krier, born in Luxembourg, is an architect, architectural theorist, and urban planner. From the late 1970s onwards, Krier has been one of the most influential neo-traditional architects and planners. He is best known for his development of Poundbury village in Dorchester, UK for the Prince of Wales. In campaigning for the reconstruction of the traditional “European” [...]

March 30, 2010

Public Works Committee Meeting

March 30, 2010 9:00 am

The Public Works Committee is responsible for physical services provided by the city such as street and alley maintenance, waste collection, disposal and recycling, sewer, water and flood control projects, assessments, public buildings, land and waterways.

Public Works Committee meetings start at 9:00 a.m. and are held in the Room 301-B, City Hall, unless otherwise noted.[...]

March 31, 2010

Public Safety Committee Meeting

March 31, 2010 9:00 am

The Public Safety Committee is concerned with issues brought forth from the fire, police, health and neighborhood services departments as well as traffic control, emergency medical services and parking. It also licenses alarm businesses and public passenger vehicles and drivers.[...]

Steering & Rules Committee Meeting

March 31, 2010 1:30 pm

The Steering and Rules committee, which consists of the Council President and the chairs of the other standing committees, formulate polices and rules for the Common Council, oversees charter schools, and considers extraordinary matters affecting multiple committees.City Hall
200 East Wells Street,
Room 301-B
Milwaukee, WI 53202[...]

April 1, 2010

Lakeshore State Park April Fools’ Meet-up and Tweet-up at Rip Tide Seafood Bar & Grill

April 1, 2010 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Join the Friends of Lakeshore State Park to celebrate spring, April Fools’ Day and meet local Twitter and Facebook users.

Cash bar. Complementary hors d’oeurves. Great door prize opportunities.

See what’s in store for Lakeshore State Park at a great waterside location.

WHERE:

Rip Tide Restaurant
649 East Erie Street
Milwaukee, WI 53202-6203
(414) 271-8433[...]

The Steering and Rules committee, which consists of the Council President and the chairs of the other standing committees, formulate polices and rules for the Common Council, oversees charter schools, and considers extraordinary matters affecting multiple committees.

Agenda

City Hall
200 East Wells Street,
Room 301-B
Milwaukee, WI 53202

The Public Safety Committee is concerned with issues brought forth from the fire, police, health and neighborhood services departments as well as traffic control, emergency medical services and parking. It also licenses alarm businesses and public passenger vehicles and drivers.
Agenda

The Public Works Committee is responsible for physical services provided by the city such as street and alley maintenance, waste collection, disposal and recycling, sewer, water and flood control projects, assessments, public buildings, land and waterways.

Public Works Committee meetings start at 9:00 a.m. and are held in the Room 301-B, City Hall, unless otherwise noted.

Agenda

A view of the atrium that runs the length of Cleveland's the Galleria at Erieview.

Could indoor gardens be in store for The Shops of Grand Avenue future? It could happen if the mall follows in the steps of a similar mall in downtown Cleveland, the Galleria at Erieview.

The Galleria at Erieview implemented an indoor garden, dubbed Gardens Under Glass, complete with a hydroponic system in empty space in the urban mall’s atrium. Fueled by natural light, mall marketing director Vicky Poole and Artist Review Today manager Jack Hamilton (a mall tenant) have created a greenhouse thanks to a $30,000 grant from Cleveland’s Civic Innovation Lab. The pair see it as a catalyst for the mall, hoping to attract those interested in learning more and consuming the products of the gardens and other sustainable stores.

How could this idea be implemented at Grand Avenue Mall in Milwaukee? The Plankinton Arcade portion of the mall appears to have the highest retail vacancy rate and operates right now largely as a pass-through area along the skywalk system between the East Town office tours and the food court. It also features an atrium the length of the property that exposes two stories to sunlight. The opportunity cost of utilizing that space certainly seems low at this point. Making the largely vacant Plankinton Arcade more attractive through the installation of garden beds also might serve to encourage more traffic to the mall’s existing businesses.

A trial on a scale this small ($30,000) appears to be a no-brainer for Grand Avenue owner’s Ashkenazy Acquisitions Corp, especially compared to past suggestions of ours.

Brady Street Streetcar

Brady Street Construction

St. John’s on the Lake Rising

St. John’s Parking Garage

St. John’s on the Lake and the Moon

AGI Team Members: Mike Ingo (CM/PM), Matt Koski (CM), Saif Islam (CM), Brian Harley (ST), Nick Kerchner (ST), Jeremy Matthews (ST), Rock Ridolfi (EV), Eran Moses (EE), Adam Wetzel (EE) Team photos courtesy of MSOE

Despite work on the Marcus Center parking garage this past summer, there are still ambitious to redevelop the site in the near future.  The repairs were done in an effort to keep the garage open until 2013, at which time a decision will be made to redevelop the site or be forced to do extension repairs.  The intent of the redevelopment project is to allow the Marcus Center to capture income from the new development and move completely off of Milwaukee County’s budget, eventually creating tax revenue.  In a sign that the redevelopment effort is still ongoing the Marcus Center engaged one of MSOE’s senior design studios to propose several conceptual designs for the project.

The teams were made up of mix of architectural engineers and construction managers required to accomplish a building of this scale.  Over the course of sixteen weeks, the three teams worked as if Marcus Center was an actual client to produce a final proposal.  Below you can see each teams design, these are conceptual ideas of how the Marcus Center can build out this location and connect this key site between Water St. and the riverwalk.  Efforts like this help to keep pushing for a highest and best use of this site.  Certainly, each design has its strengths and weaknesses but each attempted to address the complexity of the project.

CPC Team Members: Adam Koch (CM/PM), Katerina Eksler (CM), Dan LoBello (CM), Michael Norris (ST), Mike Zeeck (ST), Nathan Schwebke (EV), Mitchell Setterman (EV), Kathleen Hines (EE), Shawn Campbell (EE)

The project requirements included a 1,200 stall parking garage, a green roof, a focal point banquet and meeting place, LEED certification, and a mix of uses to generate various income streams and create various activities on the site.  Each of the three teams took a slightly different spin on the project, though a common thread was an attempt to screen the large parking garage, by wrapping it with other uses, or using artistic design to spruce up the structure. It was clear the size of the required parking structure clearly impacted the overall design of each project, partly by restricting the size of other functions in the development.

One team, CPC, brought a practical design that lent itself to multiple phases of construction.  Along Water St. the retail/office building attempted to address the human scale, though the exposed garage detracted from this design feature.  A small public space was also created along State Street that would sit in front of a restaurant.

QUIM Team Members: John Marschke (CM), Adam Messing (CM), Josh Anderson (CM/PM), Ryan Kaplanek (ST), Brian Harley (ST), Alicia Garton (EV), Bobby Fischer (EV), Dan Wayer (EE), Gary Cook (EE)

The team QUIM had a unique design with the residential portion cutting through the building and terminating the vista looking east on Highland Street. The first floor along Water Street did need to improve its connection to the public space along the street.

The team of AGI addressed the pedestrian scale by utilizing a step-back design which seemed to be effective at matching the scale of existing buildings.  To screen the large garage they used metal screening and artistic notes, this was very creative but the shear size of one of the garage elevations was to large even for this clever solution.

All of the projects faced the huge obstacle of a 1,200 space parking garage, which is often an issue that detracts from the architecture of a building.  Each team successfully attempted to address it on some level.

Partnerships such as this effort between MSOE and the Marcus Center offer a good example of how our local universities can play role in the future of our city.

Team photos courtesy of MSOE

Join the Friends of Lakeshore State Park to celebrate spring, April Fools’ Day and meet local Twitter and Facebook users.

Cash bar. Complementary hors d’oeurves. Great door prize opportunities.

See what’s in store for Lakeshore State Park at a great waterside location.

WHERE:

Rip Tide Restaurant
649 East Erie Street
Milwaukee, WI 53202-6203
(414) 271-8433

Get Directions

twitter invite
facebook invite

Wrong Way. Not for much longer.

Not for not much longer.  In accordance with the City of Milwaukee’s downtown plan over the past decade streets such as Broadway, and Jackson St. have been converted back to two-way traffic improving connectivity and access for all modes of traffic.  And now, work has begun on the next piece of this plan, the stretch of E. State St. from Van Buren St. to Market St.  Specifically, the new signals along this stretch of the street started showing up this month, and appear to be functional.

Although MGIC raised concerns regarding automobile access to their facility, and some MSOE students and professers are raising concerns over if this benefits pedestrians as much as better signage would, this conversion does in fact have benefits for pedestrians, bicyclists, and automobile traffic.  For pedestrians the changing of E. State St. to two-ways will convert the street from a low grade freeway where automobiles whiz by as if they were chasing down Danica Patrick, to more of a neighborhood local road.  For bicyclists, there is a stretch of new bike lanes in the plan, and no longer will bicyclists be seen riding the wrong way on E. State St. as they will now be able to ride east on the street to get to their destination.  Finally, automobile traffic will be able to go east to the lakefront instead of driving around numerous blocks to head east adding both wasteful congestion, and wasted time.

So the question is, when does Wells St. begin its conversion?