Talgo Open House

The elegant Talgo trainsets ordered by the Doyle administration for the Amtrak Hiawatha are nearly complete. But will they ever be used?

Alas, Sunday is quite possibly the only day you will ever get to go inside them. Tours, children’s activities, and refreshments will be available at the Talgo assembly facility from noon until 3 p.m. on Sunday, May 20th. The facility is located in the Century City redevelopment area at 3533 North 27th Street. Off-site parking is available, with MCTS Routes 27 and 80 getting you there as well.

If you can’t make it Sunday, the trainsets are also currently visible from south side of the facility on W. Townsend Avenue between 27th and the railroad bridge.

Strategically ordered before federal high speed rail grants were announced, the purchase contract pushed Wisconsin to the top of the list and netted Wisconsin $810 million to extend the Hiawatha to Madison and buy more trainsets. Governor Walker’s campaign against the poorly marketed train resulted in the federal government re-appropriating the funds to other states.

The trainsets face an uncertain future following the State Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee decision to cancel funding for a permanent maintenance base for the equipment. It remains unclear if the state will put the trainsets into service utilizing the temporary maintenance base (the assembly facility), or mothball the trainsets once they’re complete (potentially violating their contract with Talgo).

Hopefully someday the trainsets will be in use in Wisconsin. Until then I’ll just shake my head at the insane series of decisions taken merely to score political points. I do look forward to seeing our former high-speed rail funds at work when I take the Amtrak Lincoln Service, a corridor being upgraded to higher speed rail, to St. Louis this summer.

Downtown Block Party

The parking lot between 4th and 5th streets on the south side of Wisconsin Ave will finally see some activity this summer thanks to a handful of groups working to change the way Wisconsin Avenue is perceived (starting with rebranding it the WAM District). First up is a tailgate party hosted by Pabst Theater and NEWaukee on May 25th that includes the live broadcast of a Milwaukee Brewers game. The Downtown Baseball Block Party has live music starting at 6:30, a live broadcast by the FSN broadcasting team, food trucks for those that don’t bring their own grills, and a cash bar. The fun will go until midnight. There is a Facebook event with more information.

Another event is planned for June 14th in conjunction the Milwaukee IndyFest race. The Milwaukee IndyFest Street Party will kick off the three-day event that culminates in an internationally televised IndyCar race at the Milwaukee Mile. The kickoff event will include a car show, House of Harley-Davidson parade, driver appearances, food trucks, and beer stations.

While I would have rather seen the proposed Catalyst development by the Ghazi Company occupying this parking lot, I’m thrilled to see groups programming the space for more than just parking. NEWaukee and the Pabst Theater have a history of drawing thousands of people to their events (Young Professional Week, Fish Fry and a Flick). Hopefully this is just the start of good things to come for Wisconsin Avenue.

Bike Use on Buses Doubles

A press release by the Milwaukee County Transit System shows bike use is growing by leaps and bounds. County buses transported 95,000 bicycles in all of 2011, but through April 30th of this year, over 29,000 bicycles were transported, more than double last year’s numbers through the same period (12,695). Whether it’s this year’s mild weather or increased awareness that is driving the increased usage, it’s encouraging to see ever more cyclists take advantage of the racks.

For more information on how to put utilize the racks, see the MCTS webpage and video Bikes on Buses.

Explore the Historic Concordia Neighborhood with Historic Milwaukee, Inc. on Saturday

Historic Milwaukee’s annual Spaces & Traces event features the Historic Concordia neighborhood this Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with tours of 13 historically prominent residences and businesses in the near west side neighborhood. Tickets to the event are $25 , and $20 for HMI members and there’s a five dollar price increase if you wait till the the day of the event. Also included are a lecture by John Gurda about the architectural and cultural history of the neighborhood (at 11:00 a.m.), one by Alderman Bauman, a long-time neighborhood resident, on living in and representing the neighborhood (1 p.m.), and a special Miller Brewery tour (4 p.m.) More information is available on the Historic Milwaukee website.

HMI will also present Alderman Bob Bauman with the 31st annual Spaces & Traces Historic Preservation Award tonight at Fred’s Pub.

Kudos to HMI for their efforts in putting on the annual Spaces & Traces event, which allows for an up close look at Milwaukee’s history.

UWM Gains Zoning Approval for Columbia Hospital Redevelopment

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee was granted a zoning change for the former Columbia Hospital that will allow the school to expand into the complex of buildings now known as the Northwest Quadrant (file #101472). The university acquired the complex in December 2010.  This change allows UWM to fully use the former hospital as part of the university campus. Various pieces of the complex are already in service given that they comply with existing zoning regulations (parking garage, coffee shop, and offices).

As part of the zoning change, UWM Chancellor Michael Lovell voluntarily agreed to cap the number of students living in the former Columbia College of Nursing building at 90 Honors students (UWM leased a portion of the building for student housing in the past). Should the university wish to expand the number of students living in the Honors College facility to 200 in the next ten years, the university will first seek a public hearing and advisory ruling by an appropriate City body. Prior to the end of the ten year period UWM will consult with the Mariner Neighborhood Association or any successor, and the appropriate City body to determine if the commitment should be extended. We have re-posted the statement from Chancellor Lovell for your convenience.

The only vote against the zoning change was cast by Alderman Bauman. Bauman wants to see UWM place student residences throughout the city instead of concentrating them on the Upper East Side campus.

I believe the growth of UWM as a top-tier university is good for the city as well as the school, and am happy to see a resolution was found to neighborhood concerns about the university’s expansion. If only this land could have been used for an engineering school, as opposed to a new campus being created in western Wauwatosa.

The Moderne Meeting Hiring Requirements

As part of the city financing package that went towards The Moderne, developer Rick Barrett (Barrett Visionary Development), general contractor J.H. Findorff & Son, and technical coordinator Prism Technical are required to meet certain Emerging Business Enterprise (EBE) and Residence Preference Program (RPP) requirements. To-date, The Moderne has complied with both. Through March 31st, EBE participants received 26 percent of the adjusted construction budget totaling approximately $4.5 million. Through February 29th, RPP participants logged 41,000 hours or 30.4 percent of on-site construction hours. Minimum requirements were 25 and 30 percent respectively.

This information was presented before the Zoning, Neighborhoods, & Development committee. Alderman Michael Murphy noted that “the project is ahead of schedule, under budget, and is a beautiful building.” Committee Chair Alderman Jim Bohl added “this has been a very big success, and we will continue to build off of it.”

More information is available in the report presented to the committee, or on the file in Legistar (#120016).

Kids Ride Free on Amtrak Hiawatha This Summer

Children ages 2 to 15 can ride free on the Amtrak Hiawatha on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays between June 1st and August 26th. Up to two children can receive free tickets when accompanied by a paid full fare adult. To claim the offer use discount code V813.

I’ve written a column in the past asking for more creative pricing for the Hiawatha (Amtrak Should Innovate with Hiawatha Service Pricing). This is a step in the right direction.

Openings and Closings

If you’re looking for the Openings and Closings section of Eyes on Milwaukee, you will need to hold off for a few days. We’re spinning the section off into its own piece to debut in the next week.

Sydney Hih

The historic Sydney Hih building, which city officials had intended to tear down, may have been saved for another day, due to a legalistic maneuver by alderman and attorney Bob Baumann at a Tuesday meeting of the Common Council’s Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee.

As part of a joint city-county effort to bring Kohl’s corporate headquarters to downtown Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Economic Development Corp., an affiliate of the City of Milwaukee, had quietly purchased the Sidney Hih, in order to ensure site control for the project. But Kohl’s decided not to move Downtown, and no other viable project has arisen for the site, yet the City recently issued an order to raze the Sydney Hih, seemingly sealing its fate.

So things stood when the Zoning committee took up the issue of an “obsolete” file (091436) that normally would have been summarily dismissed. The file was a citizen’s request to save the Sidney Hih, filed back in February, 2009, and approved by the city’s Historic Preservation Commission.

Jim Owczarski, City of Milwaukee Clerk, explained that the historic preservation ordinance required the council to act within two years of an application for preservation, and that the two years had already passed, making the file obsolete, and eliminating that impediment to razing the Sidney Hih. But Alderman Bauman objected, noting that the Zoning committee had acted to hold the file back in the Spring of 2010, which effectively “tolled” the process and stopped the clock from continuing to run on the historic preservation proposal.

Given the differing viewpoints on the status of the file being offered by the City Clerk and Bauman, Ald. Michael Murphy made a motion to hold the file, keeping the issue open. The committee approved the motion.

Frankly, by the time the Committee concluded its business the status of the file, and the Sydney Hih wasn’t entirely clear.

Eyes on Milwaukee

This week’s Eyes on Milwaukee column explores Herb Kohl’s commitment to a new arena, the idea of another downtown strip club, Northwestern Mutual’s potential new downtown building, and a whole lot more.

Herb Kohl’s Arena Commitment

At his annual end of the season press conference, team owner Herb Kohl announced his commitment to helping finance a new arena for the Milwaukee Bucks. Kohl got a lot of attention for committing to help finance a new arena, but avoided getting into details. It’s important to note that even though new stadiums are often built with substantial public investment, the teams themselves often contribute to the facility. This is no more clear than in Minnesota, where the Minnesota Vikings’ team share is one of the hot button issues for their new facility.

While Kohl said his commitment would be “not insignificant,” it’s unreasonable to hold our breath assuming he’ll pay for the majority of a new facility himself. Milwaukee got lucky once with Jane and Lloyd Pettit paying for the entire Bradley Center (with the hope of landing an NHL team – which is part of the reason the facility has so quickly become outdated), but it’s pretty clear that won’t happen again.

For a point of reference on current arena costs, the newest arena in the NBA, the Amway Center in Orlando, cost $480 million. I would guess a new facility in Milwaukee would cost less than that, but it’s not going to come in under $100 million like the Bradley Center did.

All in all, the most significant thing Herb Kohl did is start the public push for a new arena. We should expect whomever owns the Bucks to contribute to the costs of a new arena. That said, Kohl’s move of publicly announcing his commitment was certainly a shrewd public relations move.

We will certainly discuss this topic at length in the future. We’ve even in the past discussed tearing down the Bradley Center for a new facility.

A Second Downtown Milwaukee Strip Club

Silk owner Jon Ferraro is back with another license application for a strip club on Old World Third Street. He is applying at the same location he previously applied at, 730 N. Old World Third St., Of note, Jon Ferraro’s lawsuit against the city regarding his previous application for a strip club in this space (in 2010) is still pending. I assume the two are related, and I’m pretty sure we will find out soon how.

It’s important to note that if granted, Silk East would be the second strip club downtown. Art’s Performing Center is located at 144 E. Juneau Ave. Although only garnering 1 and a half stars on Yelp, Art’s clearly hasn’t damaged the image of downtown, and there isn’t any reason to believe Silk East would either. Aspiring to be like downtown Minneapolis and its numerous strip clubs on the other hand, that’s a bad idea.

Northwestern Mutual’s Possible New Downtown Building Staying Quiet

The Quiet Company has succeeded in keeping their development of a new facility to house hundreds of employees quiet. As a reminder, Northwestern Mutual announced in September of 2011 that they would demolish the 16-story brown office building located on the southeast corner of Mason and Cass streets because of looming long-term maintenance costs. In December it was announced they would buy the building located at 733 N. Van Buren Street from Joel Lee’s Van Buren Building Co, with the intent to close on the purchase in 2012 and move employees in 2013. The newly acquired building, formerly home of Cramer-Krasselt, was assessed at $4,502,000 in 2011.

Will the company stay and keep this batch of employees downtown? That remains to be seen, as the firm indicated they’re looking at their options for a new building downtown (where it currently has employees 3,000) or relocating the employees to the Franklin campus (2,000 existing employees). With the failure of Mayor Barrett to fit a square peg into a round hole by getting Kohl’s to move to the Park East, expect the city to throw everything they can at Northwestern Mutual to make sure their new building is downtown.

If the City fails to land the new building it will be quite ironic to see the Downtown Transit Center redeveloped while Northwestern Mutual replaces their 500,000 square foot building with a parking lot or empty park.

Facade Repair

Jeff Sherman notes the new “facade” given to the covered buildings on the 600 block of N. Broadway, just south of Wisconsin Ave. The buildings were formerly covered by an ugly wood facade, but it’s now painted to resemble resemble a building. While the new “facade” is a significant improvement, it’s a shame it took years to come together, and a real tenant would certainly be far more desired.

Sherman noted the new Marriott Hotel under construction a block away, but even more appreciative of the improvement to this empty building are likely the owners of the Hilton Garden Inn. The hotel, which is under construction on the same block, will occupy the rehabbed Loyalty Building. The website for the Hilton Garden Inn is now online.

As far as facade upgrades in the area go, the pair of buildings around the corner on Wisconsin Ave take the cake for an improvement (all part of the same parcel as the hidden the Broadway buildings). Ultimately though, all are a hollow effort until actual tenants move in.

For what it’s worth I’m also eager to see renovations get underway to improve the Iron Block Building at the corner of Water and Wisconsin. The Iron Block Building is one of the historic buildings that help give downtown Milwaukee its charming character.

Development News

The Milwaukee County Transportation, Public Works, and Transit Committee unanimously authorized the Director of the Department of Transportation to declare surplus and offer for sale the Downtown Transit Center today. This move keeps the redevelopment of the Downtown Transit Center on track. The authorization will now go before the full Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. Of note, the proceeds from the sale of the land will need to go for capital projects for transit in Milwaukee County, not for operating funds.

Openings and Closings

Cafe Centraal is expanding east. The Lowlands Group restaurant will occupy the space immediately to its east on E. Lincoln Ave that formerly housed an acupuncture and massage therapy business.

City.Net Cafe is coming soon to E. Wisconsin Avenue just east of Broadway. The original City.Net Cafe is open at 7211 W. Burgleigh Street. The website for the existing cafe is CityNetJazz.com, not City.Net. The cafe is owned by Sam Belton.

The Dogg House on Jefferson Street will be short-lived, at least for now. At the first regular meeting of the Licenses Committee during the current Milwaukee Common Council session, owner Mazen Muna was informed that he has likely been operating illegally (despite his understanding that the Health Dept had cleared his operation). Muna currently operates four other locations within the City of Milwaukee. This only goes to show how the City’s licensing process is at times quite confusing and ripe for overhaul. As of lunch today, the restaurant is still open presumably using some form of double jeopardy defense.

Greek Village Gyros intends to open at 1888 N. Humboldt Ave. the location was formerly home to Meglio Pizzeria. The registered agent on the liquor license application is George Dimitropoulos.

O’Lydia’s Bar and Grill, 338 S. 1st Street (formerly Slim McGinn’s), is opening an art gallery on its second floor. OnMilwaukee has more.

Rumor Lounge, an upscale lounge, has had their liquor license approved at Monday’s Licenses Committee meeting. The lounge will open at the corner of Pittsburgh Avenue and 1st Street in Vetter Denk’s headquarters (161 South 1st Street).

The Twisted Fisherman Crab Shack also had their liquor license approved at Monday’s Licenses Committee meeting. The Crab Shack is the latest venture from Russ Davis and will open in a converted warehouse in the Menomonee Valley. Davis also has operated Rio West Cantina, Lakefront Brewery Palm Garden, Riverwalk Boat Tours and the Hubbard Park Lodge. He formerly operated Cafe Vecchio and later The Red Accordian in the space currently occupied by The Loaded Slate.

An aerial image of the neighborhood where the Milwaukee Police Department Administration Building currently sits (Image from Google Maps)

Alderman Bob Bauman, who represents downtown and the near west side, has put forth a proposal to relocate the Milwaukee Police Department headquarters and municipal courts to southeast corner of 27th Street and Wisconsin Avenue. As part of that proposal the MPD District 1 station would be relocated to W. Wisconsin Avenue between 6th Street and the Milwaukee River and the former MPD headquarters would be redeveloped. Under Alderman Bauman’s plan, a single request for proposals (RFP) would be issued by the City for the development of the new headquarters facility, the new District One station, and for the redevelopment of the existing facility. The City would then lease back the new facility at 27th and Wisconsin. The lease back provision would allow the City to avoid the up-front capital costs of developing a new facility. Given that the current facility used by MPD has a looming maintenance and renovation bill of $58 million, all ideas should be on the table. This one in particular seems worth exploring, as it would go a long way to improving other problems.

Replaces one part of over-bearing government presence in neighborhood with potential additional, taxable use

Much of the western edge of downtown Milwaukee is plagued by single-use, superblock-style buildings. Starting at 4th Street and moving west, there are multiple 10,000+ seat arenas, a 5,000+ seat theater, the convention center, a large library, a large technical college, a large museum, multiple detention facilities, multiple law enforcement facilities, two different courthouse facilities, and an extremely under-utilized public square. In short, a number of vital buildings arranged in one of the least attractive layouts possible. The sum of all of the parts is not greater than the whole.

Removing the Milwaukee Police Department Administration Building, and having it replaced with a taxable, likely mixed-use facility is good for injecting activity into the neighborhood.

Adds additional investment along W. Wisconsin Ave

This project would involve significant investment at two points along W. Wisconsin Avenue. The downtown core would see investment as the new MPD District One station is developed. More importantly, the visible investment that Marquette and others (Ambassador Hotel, 2040 Lofts, etc., etc.) have made along W. Wisconsin Avenue would be extended westward to 27th Street. This would hopefully attract more investment to the area, which has struggled to generate activity west of 24th Street.

Adds active use at major city intersection (27th and Wisconsin Ave)

This point piggybacks on the one above, but it still is worth mentioning. The 27th and Wisconsin intersection has long been a sore spot for the City, with a struggling TIF district and a controversial gas station. Moving MPD administration and the municipal courts to the intersection would create an active use at an otherwise empty site.

Reduces potential long-term liabilities for the City of Milwaukee

With the city leasing the new facility at 27th and Wisconsin, they shouldn’t have to worry about long-term maintenance costs and could more easily relocate given future department needs changing.

It’s only an RFP

The City could elect not to go forward with the received proposals if they’re not satisfactory. Issuing the RFP isn’t a commitment to anything other than to evaluate the RFPs.

New Stoplights on Wells St.

Wasting no time, the Department of Public Works has already began work on the conversion of Wells Street to a two-way street throughout downtown.  In particular, new street lights have gone up at the intersections of Milwaukee Street and Wells Street, and Jefferson Street and Wells Street

The city is evidently moving quickly to insure the street is ready before the Wisconsin Avenue bridge closing, because this two-way conversion will provide better access to multiple businesses in Westown that would otherwise be difficult to access during the closing.  This short-term need is certainly important and was the impetus for the change, but the long-term need is just as significant.

Eliminating this multi-lane, one-way expressway will improve downtown Milwaukee’s pedestrian and retail environment, while also improving access for people driving to their destinations.  As has been seen after the conversion of E. State Street, it will significantly reduce the rampant speeding that occurs regularly on Wells St. which will make the street more comfortable to cross and walk along.  Additionally, two-way streets eliminate the need to endlessly circle the block, while improving accessibility for people unfamiliar with the area.  Further, in conjunction with lower traveling speeds it will improve visibility to businesses along Wells Street making the street more desirable to retail locations, and in turn to pedestrians.  All are good reasons to consider converting the street back to two-ways, and when it’s all put together it is a simple choice, Wells Street can be oriented for speeding and a handful peak travel days or for pedestrians, cyclists, drivers, and business owners daily use.

Although there is a small possibility the street could revert to one-way travel after the Wisconsin Avenue bridge rebuild completion, it is more likely people will forget it was ever a one-way street.  Much of  State Street, Milwaukee Street, Jackson Street, Van Buren Street and Broadway have been converted to two-way streets in the past twenty years, and all have helped to improve downtown Milwaukee’s built environment, for the pedestrian, business owner, and even the person behind the wheel.  Seeing that none of these streets have been converted back to one-way streets, it is more than likely that Wells Street will have the same success.

First, it’s important to examine what Target typically does in the Milwaukee area, as this should present a good indication of what they would likely do downtown if there were no restrictions.  The three Target’s nearest to downtown are on Miller Park Way, South 27th Street, and Chase Avenue. None are urban in form, in their locations they’re the standard suburban big box retail. The parking lots are the same size of the stores themselves, clearly not something fit for downtown.

South 27th Street, Miller Park Way, and Chase Avenue Targets.

Next, it’s worth looking at what Target has done in other urban locations to give an indication of what the Target-loving urbanist might aspire for Target to build in Milwaukee. To-date Target has always focused on building stores that were at least 125,000 square feet in size, but they recently unveiled the “CityTarget” concept of slightly smaller stores (60,000 to 100,000 square feet) for urban neighborhoods. Unfortunately no detailed plans are available for review of any of the proposed CityTarget’s. But it is worth looking at what has been built though, including stores in Chicago, Seattle, Stamford, Minneapolis, and St. Louis.

Chicago has an urban target located in the South Loop neighborhood. It is blocks from two rapid transit stops, on a bus line, walkable by design, surrounded by develop-able land, and contains no surface parking. It appears remarkably urban given that much of the land around is underdeveloped to-date. It is well-located for the future as the blank walls on the back of the building abut the railroad tracks.

Seattle has a Target located across the street from Northgate Mall. It is connected with a Best Buy and shares a parking garage with the electronics store. It is more walkable, but is surrounded by surface parking on an adjacent parking lot. Other retail spaces are part of the two buildings, making the facility a larger demand generator. UrbanReviewSTL has a good write-up on the development.The space appears more attractive at street-level.

Target built an urban store in Stamford, CT. It is in a multi-story, pedestrian-friendly building that includes an attached parking deck. It is connected to a number of other retail outlets. The building is big and box like, but delivers a far more urban big box store than Target typically builds.

The Target in this aerial view is the building with the round corner. It is walkable, incredibly urban and transit acessible, and located in the core of downtown Minneapolis. It is an outlier though because it is connected to the Target headquarters.

This is a new Target in St. Louis. It is a couple miles from downtown, and located in the heart of a residential neighborhood. It is more urban than the Schucks supermarket across the street, but is still quite suburban in nature. It is setback from the street quite a distant, and features a fair amount of surface parking. It's better than any Target currently in Milwaukee, but not urban enough in design to fit within the character of downtown Milwaukee.

Given a choice between all of the presented targets, it seems clear that the downtown Minneapolis best integrates with the urban fabric it occupies. Would Target build that urban of a store in Milwaukee though? It seems unlikely at this point. If Milwaukee is to land a Target, it would seem best to aspire for the Chicago and Seattle examples, while avoiding the not-quite-suburban-or-urban nature of the new St. Louis Target.

Landing a mixed-use Target with a housing or office component would be the holy grail of urban big-box development, and could theoretically be placed on any vacant parcel as a long-term demand generator. The mix of uses would prevent the building from becoming a black hole in the urban fabric at its off-hours.

For a Target to locate in the Park East, as Bruce Westling has proposed, it would need to be a pedestrian-friendly, multi-story building to comply with the Park East Redevelopment Plan. A Target in the Park East is an idea worth supporting, but only if it is a mixed-use building and works to eliminate the blank walls that plague big box stores. While the Park East Redevelopment Plan is about to be amended for the creation of the MSOE Parking Structure, it would be foolish to further amend it to allow a big-box store to be constructed adjacent to proposed parking structure that did not comply with the design guidelines of the plan.

A mixed-use Target faces an uphill battle though because of the currently diminished strength of Milwaukee’s downtown condominium, office, and retail markets. Furthermore there are a number of vacant parcels available for development. Putting together a mixed-use building for Target is going to be complex, and it seems unlikely that any developer would go through with it if they didn’t have to. RSC & Associates had discussions with Target about locating in a mixed-use development in their Park East parcel, but their parcel remains closer to an urban farm than a mixed-use building (with no public indications of that changing anytime soon). A proposal by Ghazi Company for 4th and Wisconsin could have included a large retail anchor as well, but that was a victim of the economic downturn.

If Milwaukee gets a Target downtown in the near future, it’s likely going to come in the form of a single-use building.

Where would a single-use Target fit well? Given that it would likely have a number of blank walls, and not-be a 24 hour demand generator it makes the most since to put it on the fringe of downtown where it would abut another blank wall. It would work even better if it could take advantage of existing parking assets. Given those constraints, a single-use building to house Target (or even Wal-Mart which is rolling out smaller urban stores itself) would best fit near Interstate 794 in Westown.

If Target were to locate on any of the surface lots near Interstate 794, it could be connected to Grand Avenue to breathe new life into the facility and share the parking garage.

The potential store should still be designed in a pedestrian-friendly nature for the sides of the building away from the Interstate or an alley, but allowing the building to have a few largely blank walls would reduce design costs and constraints making it more likely to actually happen should Target or another big-box retailer decide to open here.

A Target would be a welcome addition to downtown Milwaukee, but only in the right-form or location.

Milwaukee’s most densely populated neighborhoods have shown that they can support a number of these small health clubs. The East Side has a Snap Fitness and an Anytime Fitness (within a couple blocks of each other on Farwell Avenue). The Historic Third Ward has a Snap Fitness near it’s southern tip. Bay View has a Snap Fitness as well on Kinnickinnic Avenue. Just north of the East Side, there is an Anytime Fitness on Oakland Avenue near Capitol Drive.

These no-frills, 24-hour gyms contribute greatly to the urban environment. They occupy street-level retail stalls of a couple thousand square-feet each. The gyms don’t require much, if any parking. They’re open and well-lit 24-hours a day providing a constant use generator  that generates activity in the neighborhood and delivers safety by placing “eyes on the street.” The gyms also encourage healthier lifestyles by area residents.

Informal observation of the current assortment of 24-hour gyms in Milwaukee indicates that the clubs see their highest traffic after people return home from their 9-5 jobs. The gyms are packed with treadmills, elliptical trainers, stationary bikes, weight lifting equipment, tanning beds (depending on the gym), and other assorted athletic equipment.

Could downtown use one of these use generators? Given the amount of empty storefronts, the answer is clearly yes. A 24-hour gym could utilize an empty storefront or two, generating traffic that would increase the safety and vitality of the area. It would also serve as an amenity to encourage more downtown housing and office tenants.

The bigger question is, could downtown Milwaukee support a no-frills, 24-hour gym? The answer likely is, it depends. Given the lack of amenities a Snap Fitness or Anytime Fitness provides, it’s unlikely they would poach customers from one of the downtown full-service gyms based on a value proposition based around a single gym.

What a downtown 24-hour gym can offer though is shared membership with the other family of facilities throughout the region. If a Snap Fitness opens downtown, existing Snap Fitness members will be able to access it at no additional charge. For downtown employees that are already Snap Fitness members, this will provide a mid-day workout opportunity. It also may encourage additional members to sign-up. Yes, all of the other downtown gyms previously mentioned offer this service, but none have the number of facilities that Snap or Anytime have.

The additional members alone that are encouraged to sign-up because of an additional gym close to their place of employment likely wouldn’t be enough to keep a 24-hour gym in business though. The gym would need to be well-located to take advantage of the existing downtown population. A location north of Wisconsin Avenue in East Town would be desirable to draw in the existing downtown population, especially those without in-building workout rooms.

If the right location is chosen, a 24-hour gym should have no problem working in downtown Milwaukee. Because of the relative lack of amenities (swimming pool, actual running track, basketball court, parking) a Snap or Anytime would likely not compete for many customers with one of the existing gyms.

Lakefront Gateway

Department of City Development staff presented the Downtown Plan Update at the September 15th, 2010 Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee meeting.  Similar to the City Plan Commission meeting, staff presented the overall themes and the eight catalytic projects, which are geared towards increasing density and connectivity throughout downtown, whiles creating a sense of place.

Alderman Wade raised a few questions pertinent to the plans catalytic projects.  In particular he asked how the plan would address the lack of a positive downtown gateway experience, and whether or not the city had weighed in on what to do with the O’Donnell Parking Garage.

Responding to Alderman Wade’s questions, Rocky Marcoux, Department of City Development Commissioner, explained that “the city has not weighed in officially” regarding the parking garage, but then spoke at length regarding the lakefront catalytic project saying the area near the garage, specifically the entrance way to the lakefront from the Hoan Bridge, is “a really disjointed presence.” He added that “we should be looking at the potential relocation of the bus terminal,” and emphasized the importance of this project stating that this connection to the lakefront attraction is “the piece that’s missing.”

Alderman Murphy brought up the role of public art and its role in the plan. Greg Patin, City of Milwaukee Planning and Development Manager, responded saying it is an “integral part”, and that “we see that as one of the things we weave together.”

Pat O’Brien, President of the Milwaukee Development Corporation and the President of the M7, praised the city’s work on the plan, but raised some items.  He warned that the plan should focus development on the existing catalytic projects leftover from the previous plan, including the Pabst Brewery and the Park East.  Additionally he asserted that the city should be careful not to destabilize existing downtown projects, and that density is an important goal, but the projects should be prioritized. When asked by Alderman Murphy if his organization expects or want direct subsidies for projects he responded “that would be a good thing.”

The plan was passed unanimously by the committee and will now go before the Common Council.

More details on the plan can be found here.

Cincinnati's Planned Freeway Cap Park

For cost reasons, it’s most efficient to cover a trenched freeway rather than to replace an elevated freeway with a tunnel (as Boston did). In Dallas construction of a five-acre park over a trenched freeway (Woodall Rodgers Freeway) will connect downtown Dallas with the thriving Uptown neighborhood. The connection will be further enhanced with the expansion of the M-Line Streetcar through the park.

In 1976 Seattle completed Freeway Park, a 5.2 acre park that covered part of their newly completed freeway. The park has recently been reinvented following a 2002 murder and a number of other crimes. The park is adjacent to the city’s convention center in the heart of the city. Phoenix has a tunneled Interstate 10 and built a park on top (Margaret T. Hance Park).

A number of other cities have plans in place to cap freeways. Cincinnati has pilings in place to build a park over Fort Washington Way that would connect downtown with their redeveloping riverfront (UrbanCincy review of the proposal). The Los Angeles area has a number of plans in various states of completion to cap freeways everywhere from downtown to Hollywood. Oak Park, IL has studied capping the Eisenhower Expressway. St. Louis has a design competition underway to redevelop the grounds around the Gateway Arch, with a number of the designers recommending capping the freeway, and the City to River movement recommending replacing the freeway with a boulevard.

A Freeway Cap Park in Milwaukee

A cap over Interstate 43? It's an idea that's happening elsewhere in the country.

How could a freeway cap be utilized in Milwaukee? The most logical spot to build one is north of the Marquette Interchange over Interstate 43 connecting Westown and Avenues West. It could stretch as far north as the Winnebago Street bridge.

The benefits? A freeway cap park would finally make Marquette University feel like it’s part of downtown, instead of just outside of it. This might cause future Marquette student housing (be it built by the university or private interests) to be built in Westown. If the park cap was built far enough north, it’s possible that The Brewery redevelopment might cause a positive spillover effect onto the neighborhood west of it that’s currently underutilized. It also may encourage may infill development in the eastern portions of Avenues West as the park would eliminate the gorge that currently separates the neighborhood from downtown.

Taking the pessimistic viewpoint, a Interstate 43 freeway cap park might not produce much benefit for a number of reasons though. For one, they’re really expensive  to build (~$500 square-foot) so the city would need to recoup a lot of value from new development. Unfortunately, despite the park likely being an attractive space, there isn’t a whole lot of land for development in the area. The Milwaukee County Courthouse consumes much of the east side I-43 as it traverses downtown, drastically limiting the amount of higher value land for redevelopment. The land that isn’t the Courthouse east of the freeway is park land that is already underutilized that likely couldn’t be redeveloped because of it’s proximity to the courthouse.

On the west side of I-43 there is likewise a shortage of land for redevelopment. Aurora Sinai Medical Center occupies most of the land. The parcel north of the medical center that could be redeveloped is unfortunately located just across the potential park from the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility (more commonly, “the jail”) handicapping it’s value.

Outside of the area where the capped park could be built, there is likely too much available land in downtown Milwaukee over the next 10 years to effectively return value on the park. The Park East Freeway removal has left a lot of land in county hands, which they’ve been unsuccessful in selling. The Milwaukee Intermodal Station has generated more demand in that area, along with the planned Milwaukee Streetcar and potential Post Office relocation, that’s a lot of land that is set to become available soon. The recently unveiled Downtown Plan also plans for more development near the lakefront and redeveloping MacArthur Square to include potential development sites.

There would be a large amount of value to be captured if the elevated Interstate 794 was to be removed or lowered east of the river, but the lack of political will to do anything other than redeck the Hoan Bridge appears to have doomed any discussion of that issue.

Cities like Dallas and Cincinnati seem poised to capture a lot of value with the cap parks, but they’re using them to connect two thriving neighborhoods. Avenues West, despite a highly laudable continued series of investments by Marquette is not as strong as Uptown in Dallas. Avenues West and Westown will be stronger in the future, and at that point there will be more value to capture with a park to bridge the gap, but until then it would be wise for the focus to be on infill development.

While there are benefits to building the freeway cap park, ultimately Milwaukee is best to invest elsewhere at this time. Building a freeway cap park will likely someday be a good idea, but it doesn’t seem economically feasible in the next 10 to 20 years. Investing and improving connection tools (the Streetcar, the Riverwalk) as well as generating more infill development in the areas outlined by the Downtown Plan appear to be the most promising way for the city to generate a solid return-on-investment with new development.

Chicago's newest piece of large-scale public art.

For a city that’s displayed to the world a giant bean, 25-foot tall American Gothic statue, and a massive Picasso statue, a three-story tall eyeball should really come as no surprise. Upon a viewer’s first impression the detail of the piece  seem almost overwhelming. The EYE appears quite realistic with red veins on all sides. From across the street, or when attempting to push the piece over, the EYE appears incredibly lifelike. Thankfully it does not blink.

Unveiled July 7th, the EYE was designed by Tony Tasset and fabricated in Sparta, Wisconsin. As is par for the course with public art, someone must dismiss it by claiming it’s barely art. In this case it’s urbanist author James Howard Kunstler, who has named it his Eyesore of the Month for August 2010. The EYE will keep a watch on State Street shoppers until October. After that it’s fate is unknown, but given Illinois’s track record it might be wise to use it to keep track of the Governor’s office.

Large pieces of public art like the EYE are a breath of fresh air in large cities. They’re often capable of evoking a sense of place on their own. When the right location is selected, a piece of public art redefines the space it occupies. In this case Pritzker Park, a fairly sizable pocket park within the Loop, has been transformed into a destination.

When it comes to large-scale public art, Chicago does it right. Big pieces of art, many of which invite controversy, encourage people by the thousands to go see them. Even if they’re critically-panned, Chicago’s public art installations create a sense of place and make you want to go see them.

Milwaukee has made some inroads on using public art. The controversial orange sculpture The Calling helps define the eastern edge of Wisconsin Avenue and serves as a gateway O’Donnell Park and Milwaukee Art Museum (which makes plenty of a statement on its own). Without the large sculpture, O’Donnell Park is nearly a surface parking lot, a massive piece of concrete. With the orange sunburst it’s at least a defined place, a mildly inviting pedestrian pass-through to the lakefront from downtown.

Coming in 2011 (and almost not at all), Janet Zweig’s Pedestrian Drama flip-sign animation kiosks coming to Milwaukee’s Wisconsin Avenue  will certainly make Wisconsin Avenue a bit more intriguing to walk down. The Milwaukee Riverwalk is adorned with jewelry and the Bronze Fonz (which despite criticism sees a steady stream of tourists).

Milwaukee would be wise to look to take advantage of large-scale public art with some of its urban parks. There are two well-located urban parks that would likely benefit the most, Cathedral Square and Pere Marquette.

Pere Marquette has the permanent gazebo, which functions well as a band shell and wedding photo opportunity spot. Beyond that though, the gazebo doesn’t draw many people into the park.

Cathedral Square has a great location, well-defined street wall surrounding it, and a layout that doesn’t make any sense at all based on park use. During the summer the park’s fountain is entirely covered by a stage for the well-attended Jazz in the Park. During the winter the fountain is turned off as the park is covered in snow and holiday lights. The holiday lights make the park a well-lit destination in the winter, but in the summer the park doesn’t encourage anyone to walk through it with the exception of one week. That one is Bastille Days, where MSOE’s miniature Eiffel Tower introduces a welcoming north anchor to the park and the roads are closed to traffic all around the park. Switching the stage location to the north end of the park would allow the fountain to return to summer operation, encourage more pedestrian activity, and open up the south end of the park for temporary art installations that invite more people into the area.

To take full advantage of public art, Milwaukee needs to start thinking bigger.

Please remember to tip your servers, as food heaven for you is frequently food hell for them.

Where will you eat?

Participating Restaurants

* denotes $30 dinner

• Benihana
• Bistro 333
• Buca di Beppo
• Butch’s Old Casino Steak House
• Cafe Calatrava
• Cafe at the Pfister
• Capital Grille*
• Charro Tacos & Tequila
• Club Charlies
• Coquette Cafe
• Eagan’s On Water
• Indulge
• Joey Buona’s Restaurant
• Karl Ratzsch’s
• Kil@wat
• Knick
• Libiamo
• Louise’s
• Mader’s*
• Mason Street Grill*
• Milwaukee ChopHouse*
• Mi•Key’s*
• Molly Cool’s Seafood Tavern*
• Osteria del Mondo*
• Palms Bistro*
• Red Accordion
• RipTide Seafood Bar & Grill
• Riverfront Pizzeria
• Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery
• Sabor*
• Sake Tumi
• Swig
• Third Ward Caffe*
• Tulip
• Umami Moto*
• Ward’s House of Prime*
• Water Buffalo
• Zarletti

The windows are step in the right direction, but good urban form will be found with the inclusion of restaurants and bars that serve both those inside and out.

The Frontier Airlines Center performs an important function for the Milwaukee region as a whole, bringing thousands of people to Milwaukee for conventions both big and small. It helps inject life into downtown by filling hotel rooms, restaurants, and bars. The convention center building itself though lacks that vitality. Despite being centrally located, it does not add to the fabric of downtown.  Thankfully any future expansion can improve not only the amount of available floor-space, but the building’s ability to function as a 365-days-a-year facility for both convention goers and downtown residents, workers, and visitors.

Compared to many of its peers, the facility formerly known as the Midwest Airlines Center is more attractive from the street. The building has plenty of windows that are welcoming to those on the street and inside.  And although one former architecture critic finds the design elements that adorn the outside  “Disneyesque”, they are a welcome improvement over the standard suburban shopping mall style of many convention centers.

The facility is also better located than many of its peers, occupying almost two whole city blocks on the west side of downtown. It’s near the Milwaukee Intermodal Station, the current hub for Amtrak and inter-city bus lines in Milwaukee, and the future home of a high speed rail line connecting Milwaukee with the rest of the Midwest. The proposed streetcar line would stop at the facility as well. It’s also centrally located between numerous hotels. Many of Milwaukee’s best amenities are within reach of the center as well, with the Riverwalk, Pabst and Riverside Theaters, Bradley Center within a stone’s throw, and the Milwaukee Art Museum, Discovery World, and lakefront a little bit further to the East. There are more bars and restaurants within walking distance than one could visit in a weekend. Most importantly for arrivals and departures, the airport is a cheap shuttle ride away. Try finding anything to do near the US’s largest convention enter, McCormick Place in Chicago, anything outside of drinking at a hotel bar is a cab ride away. The Frontier Airlines Center is very well-located, but with the location comes responsibility to the urban fabric, and it’s there that the facility drops the ball.

The Frontier Airlines Center fails to activate the street in a way that an urban building on its scale needs to. The building avoids committing the urban design sin of having windowless walls, but the windows only go so far. They make the building attractive from afar, but fail to encourage pedestrian activity around them in a way that an occupied commercial stall does. Paired with the massive surface parking lot across the street, the facility effectively functions as a gap in the Wisconsin Ave corridor. That’s a problem that can be overcome by infill development on the surface parking lot across the street. A bigger problem (and in-turn, opportunity) exists on the north side of the facility.

The convention center turns its back on Kilbourn Avenue. This could change under "Phase III."

The building turns its back on Kilbourn Avenue, the street that should be Milwaukee’s grandest boulevard. The facility is significantly set back from the boulevard, with the space between occupied by a large surface parking lot (walkability’s greatest challenge). The surface parking lot occupies the space that a “phase III” expansion of the convention center would occupy. The parking lot does not add any value to the neighborhood, especially when it’s empty. It is in this way that the convention center detracts from the walkability of the area, instead of enhancing it by providing every-day destinations and eyes on the street.

If a “phase III” expansion of the Frontier Airlines Center is to happen, it should focus on making the facility an integral part of downtown at the street level, instead of operating as a silo in the city.

Any addition should go beyond simply increasing the amount of available convention hall space. The most important of which is to build a solid street-level presence on Kilbourn Avenue that features commercial establishments that face both into the center and out onto the street, creating a 365-day-a-year revenue stream for the facility and stitching together the urban fabric in Westown. Targeted businesses for the first floor stalls should include national chain bar and restaurants, as they are businesses likely to draw out convention goers, and their expense accounts, as well as businesses that are likely to pay a higher premium for rent. A large scale addition should also rethink all four sides of the building as additional commercial stalls could be located throughout the facility including along 4th and 6th Streets to further enhance the facility and neighborhood.

A hotel could also be added to the physical footprint of the complex itself, emerging above the Kilbourn Avenue side of the facility. It need not be the preeminent hotel for convention goers (to avoid drawing the ire of the owners of the skywalk-connected Hilton and Hyatt), but still serve as an available space downtown that increases activity in the area 365-days-a-year.

From an economic perspective, adding retail stalls and a hotel would add revenue streams to the Wisconsin Center District’s operating budget. The additions are not simply an added cost of doing business in an urban area, but instead a reliable way for the center to generate more revenue. If the facility can draw revenue every day of the year, it can potentially more competitively bid for conferences.

From a design perspective, wrapping the Kilbourn Avenue side in commercial stalls and a hotel not only will activate the street, but will also hide the big-box convention space. This would serve to provide the benefits of a convention center, namely the visitors, while at the same time retaining the street-level variety that makes urban areas inviting in the first place. Generating more activity around the convention center blocks will only serve to increase traffic throughout the rest of Westown.

Weaving the convention center more tightly into the urban fabric of Westown will enhance the desirability of the entire neighborhood.

Your thoughts?