Milwaukee County and the City of Milwaukee City Plan Commission both unanimously recommended approval of the Milwaukee School of Engineering’s parking garage proposal in the Park East. These approvals point out that City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County politicians are anxious to see new development in the Park East. Unfortunately, as currently conceived this isn’t a project worthy of approval.

Milwaukee is lucky to have a number of higher education institutions in its most urban neighborhoods. The four most premiere institutions are Marquette in Avenues West, MIAD in the Historic Third Ward, MSOE in East Town, and UWM on the Upper East Side. The schools vary drastically in size, but each help define the neighborhood they occupy. Despite any criticism that might be leveled against them, they each have made significant investments in the City of Milwaukee. They each generate a sizable amount of pedestrian traffic that makes the neighborhoods they call home more vibrant. Each in their own way, they serve as a key drivers in making Milwaukee an engaging and dynamic city. But as their respective students know, what matters at the end of the day is the grade you get. Given the resources available to each school, how well are they contributing to the neighborhoods they occupy and Milwaukee’s urban core?

Milwaukee School of Engineering is proposing the construction of a $30 million, 780-car parking garage, that would have an athletic field on the roof of the building. About 500 of the 780 parking spots would be leased to business and the general public, generating taxable revenue for 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 University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Marquette University and Milwaukee School of Engineering announced that the universities are collaborating on seven energy technology research projects. These projects are being conducted as part of the Southeastern Wisconsin Energy Technology Research Center, which ties the universities together with local companies, such as Rockwell Automation and WE Energies, to conduct research in the area of energy technology. The initial projects involves green concepts and advanced technologies such as wind turbines, Li-Ion Batteries, CO2 recycling and sequestration via algae, and nanowire thermoelectric materials.

Often times when discussing the economic value of immigration, people consider the impact of having immigrants accept low wages for jobs “ordinary” Americans wish not to do.

But what about the dream jobs we all wish for? I’m not talking about professional basketball player and former Milwaukee Buck Yi Jianlian (nor Australian Andrew Bogut). I’m talking about CEOs of growing and profitable companies. CEOs of technology companies.

One of the often-overlooked rules for residences in Milwaukee is that no more than three unrelated persons may live together. I’ve never heard a good reason for why the rule is in place or how one can get around the rule (outside of simply ignoring it like many landlords do). DailyReporter.com finally gave me an [...]

Whitney Gould took an early retirement buyout from Journal Communications a little over a month ago.  Her send off column was titled "Retiring, not tiring of quality design." Ever since moving to Milwaukee three years ago I’ve enjoyed her reporting on issues involving building design. My views began to disagree with hers when she started [...]

Links from the Milwaukee-informationsphere Mary Louise Schumacher is yet another art person doesn’t think it’s a good idea to build a recognizable landmark that will increase pedestrian traffic in downtown Milwaukee. Hofbrauhaus Milwaukee, a proposed German beer hall and restaurant, is likely coming next The Brewery development at the old Pabst brewery in Blue Ribbon [...]

The city of Chicago, in its continual quest to be at the forefront of the implementation of green features, has launched the Green Alley Program.  In a city with almost 2,000 miles of alleyways, this is a huge step.  Nearly 50 alleys have already been built, with many more to come.  The pavement allows water [...]