Group Unveils Temporary Public Art on Capitol Drive
A view of the hanging boat from across Capitol Drive.
Without question, the former Tower Automotive site is one of the most blighted properties in Milwaukee. Thankfully, the city has purchased the site and is in the process of transforming the massive site into Century City. However, Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor was any urban industrial park. To fill the gap between the site’s multi-year transformation from brownfield to productive industrial space, the 30th Street Industrial Corridor Corporation and Business Improvement District #37 invited IN:SITE to create art installations that generate interest in the area.
ON and OFF CAPITOL is a welcome breath of fresh air into the currently desolate space (with the exception of Talgo, who is about to occupy the southern most portion of the site). The art work will be in place for up to six months. It’s worth your time to check out IN:SITE’s latest installation.
A look at the railway bridge and surrounding area. The art is definitely a welcome improvement.
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- A shot of the pedestrian-unfriendly environment that IN:SITE seeks to mediate with art.
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- Portraits and quotes have been collected from within the neighborhood. Pattern by Paula Schulze, portraits and quotes collected by Sarah Luther. These yard signs lie just west of the railway underpass and south of Capitol Drive.
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- A shot of the yard signs behind the rusty fence that separates them from the sidewalk.
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- The north side of Capitol Drive includes another batch of yard signs as well.
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- Signage was integrated to existing transit infrastructure in the area to let people know where to find more art.
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- These billboards face east along Capitol Drive. Colin Matthes is the artist.
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- The railway underpass has been wrapped in former Clear Channel advertising materials. Installation by Marla Sanvick, pattern by Paula Schulze. This is the first art installation Canadian Pacfic has ever allowed on their property.
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- A look at the railway bridge and surrounding area. The art is definitely a welcome improvement.
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- A closeup short of the mural along Capitol Drive.
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- A mural by Colin Matthes on the north side of Capitol Drive, just west of the railway underpass.
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- A hanging boat between two light posts in the former parking lot. By Colin Matthes.
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- A view of the hanging boat from across Capitol Drive.
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- The windows had to be boarded up for rennovation work, so IN:SITE added a layer of art during the normally unattractive bordering process. Pattern by Paula Schulze, portrats by Sarah Luther.
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- “This is our Neighborhood” billboard by Sarah Luther.
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Hilarious, but I love it!
why not just tear this whole thing down and let companies that want to do business in the century city build new modern facilities that will integrate with the new City of Milwaukee facility in site.
@Alex That is essentially what is going on, with the exception that they are doing the brownfield remediation as no company was going to open a new facility there with the property in the state it was in. Without the City of Milwaukee’s efforts here these properties would likely of become complete vacant or at “best” a salvage yard.
@Alex With the exception of the headquarters building, that’s what they’re doing. I’m not sure what the site contains in the way of ground contaminants or other problems, but environmental remediation takes a serious amount of time.
I know there has been some controversy about just clearing the buildings here because some of them could be still useful to industry. Some things like very high clear height and 30-40-80 ton cranes are expensive and valuable when marketing the sites to certain industries.
Obviously if the reno costs are too high… that negates any positives.
@Jesse It is my understanding that many of the buildings were stripped of their value before the city got control of them.
I drove past this about a month ago and wondered if it was some kind of protest.
@Dan Funny!
I guess it is some kind of protest – against blight.
Cool stuff.
D’