How to Fix Wisconsin Avenue’s Black Hole
Creative Alliance Milwaukee has plans to activate 4th and Wisconsin. Will they work?
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Creative Alliance Milwaukee has plans to activate 4th and Wisconsin. Will they work? Back to the full article.
Photos - Page 2
Categories: Real Estate
Does it really take a rocket scientist to identy six negative ‘patterns’ impacting 4th and Wisconsin. Perhaps there is a reason positive elements or ‘connections’ are missing.
This area both confuses and depresses me. We completely screwed this area with poor land use planning. Now its really hard to transform due to the freeways, surface lots and big block development. I’m afraid that the new arena location will continue to pull attention away from Westown and create more blight and emptiness. Its so strange because there are 1,500 hotel rooms in the area and NOTHING for visitors to do or see in the immediate vicinity. Even the museum wants out of the area.
Milwaukee does one thing really well – we know how to develop and nurture neighborhoods. However, we don’t know how to cultivate a vibrant downtown. “Milwaukee Downtown” understands this. They have done an amazing job of encouraging a great mix of live, work and play attributes east of the river and into the Third ward by cultivating the area as a neighborhood first.
Create better pedestrian links between the Intermodal Station and convention center / hotels, double the size of the convention center, promote the redevelopment of the Grand theater, connect with MU to the west, encourage smaller scale developments, expand the current hotels or build a new one on 4th and WI, pull 1/2 of the bus traffic of the Avenue (share with Wells and Mich), and finally housing, housing and more housing. Increased density will drive more development. Also, once a neighborhood is established, they will ultimately determine the future of Westown.
The lot needs to be subdivided. It would be a huge mistake to utilize this whole parcel (which is extremely large) as merely public space or temporary “event” space largely for the very reasons this article and CAM suggest–when it’s not being used, it’s still an empty black hole and creates a significant gap in the streetscape down Wisconsin Ave. Making no more than 1/3 (or better, 1/4) of the lot a public square would enhance the walkability of the neighborhood, especially when conventions are ongoing; however, the City should proactively market the remainder as key office and residential mixed-use. No need for a skyscraper, but adding attractive office space (even if just 10-15 stories) and market-rate apartments to this block, with street-level retail, would do wonders and add to the tax base.
Thought those reading this article would appreciate this motion photo of the Randolph Hotel that once occupied the site. Follow this link: http://oldmilwaukee.net/blog/?p=1439 Video is at bottom of blog post.