Trinity Woods Development Takes Shape on Mount Mary Campus

A new intergenerational housing complex is rising on Mount Mary University‘s campus.

Known as Trinity Woods, the complex will provide housing for the sisters of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, including assisted living units, as well as housing for single mothers attending the university and their children. An early childhood education center is also planned for the complex, available to residents, staff and the community.

“It’s unlike anything anywhere else in the country in that it will bring seniors, students, religious sisters and children together in a vibrant facility,” said Mount Mary University president Christine Pharr at the facility’s September 2020 groundbreaking.

The $45 million development is expected to be completed this fall. Its name is a reference to the adjacent, 10-acre woods, the Catholic faith’s holy trinity, and the project’s three partners – Mount Mary, the School Sisters of Notre Dame and Milwaukee Catholic Home.

The partners are building the development on the north side of the university’s 80-acre campus, located at the southwest corner of N. 92nd St. and W. Burleigh St.

Plans call for 52 assisted-living units for sisters who require care, 90 one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments for sisters and other seniors, and 24 family-units for undergraduate single mothers and their children.

A three-story “town hall” building, with a gathering space, health clinic, salon and bistro would link the various housing wings. Various amenities in the town hall portion would be open to university students and staff.

Senior Housing Partners, based in Roseville, Minn., is serving as the developer for the partners. Milwaukee-based Plunkett Raysich Architects is leading the design, while VJS Construction Services is leading the general contracting.

As part of the development, the School Sisters are vacating their long-time home in Elm Grove. Artifacts from the current complex will be incorporated into the new development. The organization is selling the property to the Mandel Group for redevelopment.

The university was founded as a ministry of the School Sisters in 1913 and moved to its 80-acre home in Milwaukee in 1929.

The new building isn’t the only change afoot on the university campus. The school is transforming a long-closed pool in the basement of one of its oldest buildings into a health sciences center for its nursing programs.

The 6,500-square-foot facility will create a home for the university’s new four-year nursing program, provide expanded facilities for its existing 1-2-1 partnership program and serve as an inter-professional collaboration lab for undergraduate and graduate students studying nursing, social work, counseling, occupational therapy, art therapy and dietetics.

A media preview of that project was held in October.

Mount Mary University has 1,200 students, including 639 female undergraduate and 561 co-ed graduate students, according to its website.

Photos

2019 Site Photos, Rendering and Site Plan