15th Annual Mayor’s Design Award Winners Announced (Photo Gallery)
The winners of the 15th annual Mayor's Design Awards have been announced with projects ranging from a high-rise housing tower to a complete street redesign taking home awards.
The winners of the 15th annual Mayor’s Design Awards have been announced. Projects vary in scale from the high-rise expansion at St. John’s on the Lake to the adaptive reuse of a one-story building on N. Martin Luther King Jr Drive, turning it into Tran’s Auto Service.
It’s encouraging to see that the winners come from all corners of the city, and in projects big and small.
Winners are listed by district. A photo gallery is included below the list. The City has also produced a PDF presentation of the winners. A list of past winners can be found on the City of Milwaukee website.
Aldermanic District 1
Aldermanic District 2
Aldermanic District 3
- St. John’s on the Lake – 1800 N Prospect Ave
- Crank Daddy’s Bicycle Works – 2170 N. Prospect Ave
- Goodwill Store, Oakland Avenue – 2830 N Oakland Ave
- Café Corazon – 3129 N. Bremen St
Aldermanic District 4
- Marquette University College of Engineering – 1637 W. Wisconsin Ave
- Café Benelux & Market – 346 N Broadway
- Veteran’s Manor (Thomas H. Wynn Memorial Apartments) – 3430 W. Wisconsin Ave
- MWF – South End Development Phase 1 (Summerfest) – 651 E. Polk St
- Corcoran Lofts – 120 N. Milwaukee St
Aldermanic District 5
Aldermanic District 6
- St. Marcus Lutheran School Addition – 2215 N. Palmer
- Tran’s Auto Service – 3919 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr
Aldermanic District 8
- Ingeteam – 3757 W. Milwaukee Rd
- Silver City Townhomes – 3507 W. Pierce St
- Zimmerman Architectural Studios Headquarters, City Lights – 2122 W. Mt. Vernon
Aldermanic District 9
Aldermanic District 10
Aldermanic District 12
Aldermanic District 13
Aldermanic District 14
Aldermanic District 15
More about the Mayor's Design Awards
- See the 2024 Mayor’s Design Awards Winners - Jeramey Jannene - May 17th, 2024
- Eyes on Milwaukee: See The 2023 Mayor’s Design Awards Winners - Jeramey Jannene - May 24th, 2023
- Eyes on Milwaukee: 2022 Mayor’s Design Awards Announced - Jeramey Jannene - May 12th, 2022
- Eyes on Milwaukee: 2021 Mayor’s Design Awards Announced - Jeramey Jannene - Jun 7th, 2021
- Eyes on Milwaukee: Nominations Open for 2021 Mayor’s Design Awards - Jeramey Jannene - Feb 23rd, 2021
- Eyes on Milwaukee: 2020 Mayor’s Design Awards Announced - Jeramey Jannene - Jan 5th, 2021
- Eyes on Milwaukee: 2019 Mayor’s Design Awards Recipients - Jeramey Jannene - May 22nd, 2019
- Eyes on Milwaukee: 2018 Mayor’s Design Award Recipients - Jeramey Jannene - May 29th, 2018
- Eyes on Milwaukee: Nominations Open for Mayor’s Design Awards - Jeramey Jannene - Jan 29th, 2018
- Mayor’s Design Awards All Over Map - Michael Horne - May 19th, 2017
Read more about Mayor's Design Awards here
Good stuff. All worthy projects, but if I must pull out my design hat…. good lord, about half of these have nothing whatsoever that I would remotely call design. The goodwill store? What? There’s zero innovation there.
Granted, all of them are decently done, good for the city, and integrate well into the urban fabric – something many architects forget to do. But great design? Sheesh guys, c’mon!
It’s about rewarding precedent with many of these projects. Greenstreet praised the Goodwill store for opening up windows to the street (which is a good precedent albeit not earth shattering) and for re-using a space that people were feeling pretty hopeless about. Everything is relative.
While I generally agree with Tyrell’s comments, GT is right on. Many of the projects are pretty ordinary, but the backstory to some of the less high brow stuff is often compelling — a project facing tough odds because of program, giving life to the street where a building tenant typically would not, working in a tough part of town, etc… Those issues should be celebrated.
Limited budgets and challenging clients shouldn’t be excuses though for architects not to honor good scale, proportion, and planning — so it’s free game to be critical on those items. It’s the faux historic stuff on the list that stands out to me in that regard. Looks cheap now and will look even worse ten years from now. Details from 100 years ago weren’t meant to be replicated with break metal and cement board.
Of course I am particularly pleased (and was surprised) to learn of the S. 2nd Street win. For those who don’t know the history, its worth highlighting. The city originally intended to repave S. 2nd to maximize automobile use. A grassroots effort was mobilized to advocate for a complete street instead. Urban Milwaukee helped create awareness by running stories on the issue. For example here: http://urbanmilwaukee.com/2009/04/30/complete-street-makeover-for-s-2nd-street/
What was particularly exciting about the effort was that we found a volunteer, simply by posting comments to a UM blog post, and Kieran Sweeney, a person I have still never met in person, volunteered to create a visual image of what 2nd Street could look like as a complete street. This image was subsequently entered in a GOOD magazine national competition and came in second place: http://urbanmilwaukee.com/2009/05/20/s-2nd-street-redesign-concept-is-a-pretty-good-one/
As a result of that success, more public awareness was brought to the situation. Ultimately, to the credit of leaders at the City, particularly folks like Clarke Wontoch at DPW and the Alderman of that time Jim Witkowiak, the street design was reconsidered and S. 2nd Street was made complete. Today, the emergence of several new small businesses in previously vacant storeftonts, new construction infill development, and many happy pedestrians and bicycles are all testimony to the positive impact of the new street. Three cheers for the power of citizen activism, positive debate, journalism, and open-minded policy-makers and public servants. In the end, we all won!