Burnham Playfield Reopens To Happy Crowd

Judging by its initial usage, Milwaukee Recreation (MKE REC) has a winner when it comes to the renovation of Burnham Playfield at 1755 S. 32nd St.

Area stakeholders gathered Wednesday morning to formally mark the completion of the playfield’s renovation. While Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Keith P. Posley and others cut a ribbon, several dozen children were already playing on the playground equipment and splash pad and teenagers were utilizing the basketball courts, soccer field and baseball diamonds.

The $4.4 million renovation has been a long time coming for the 97-year-old park. Neighborhood stakeholders, working with VIA CDC, began discussing the project in 2011. A 2014 equity analysis by MKE REC identified it as a Top-10 priority from the MPS division’s 52 playfields. Planning work began in earnest in 2018.

The final project included removing asphalt paving, replacing a wading pool with a splash pad, installing new playground equipment and basketball courts, creating a soccer field with synthetic turf and making accessibility-focused improvements to the fieldhouse.

Site Design Group created the final design with Quorum Architects and Intertek PSI. Poblocki Paving served as the general contractor. The Zilber Family Foundation ($200,000), Land and Water Conservation Fund ($400,000) and Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District ($119,508) provided grant funding. Reflo helps support the green infrastructure components of MKE REC projects.

“These partnerships, combined with community input, resulted in a play space that we can all be proud of for many years to come,” said MKE REC senior director Lynn Greb.

The playfield been quietly open for the past week, with people in the area taking notice. VIA Executive Director JoAnna Bautch said her group has led programming in the park, including a neighborhood walk and Zumba lessons, only to encounter other groups already using the park.

“That just brings VIA great joy,” she said.

The organization already took on the redevelopment of the tennis courts, something that would otherwise have been left out of the park’s renovation. A $90,000 fundraising campaign allowed the tennis courts to be resurfaced into futsal courts in 2019. Futsal, an urban variant of soccer that is played on a smaller, hard surface, is popular with area residents, the majority of whom are Latino.

“Not every neighborhood has a partner like VIA,” said Greb. Besides its work on the futsal courts,  VIA facilitated a more engaging planning process by already having relationships with neighbors and working with project funders, like Zilber, to secure support, she said. “That’s having an MVP on your team.”

Alderwoman JoCasta Zamarripa was happy to see the park receive significant investment, especially investment that reflects the changing demographics of the population. She noted the park was originally built as an amenity for nearby German residents, but the neighborhood has evolved into a home for Polish residents, than Italian, and now Hispanic. She said a growing number of African American and Hmong families also live in the area.

A 2019 fundraising pitch from VIA illustrates the demand for the park. “Burnham Park is the only significant green space in a 165 block area and thus serves as the neighborhood park to 21,000 residents, including over 7,000 children living in the area,” reads the pitch. The 53215 ZIP code the park inhabits had the greatest concentration of children within any Wisconsin ZIP code.

MKE REC is a division of MPS. School board chair Bob Peterson and area representative Marcela Garcia joined those in attendance at the ribbon cutting.

The playfield is bookended by two school buildings. Greenfield School is located along the park’s western edge at S. 35th St. MPS’ Walker Campus is on the eastern edge along S. 32nd St. It is split between Carmen High School of Science and Technology, a charter school, and MPS’ ALBA School.

The Department of Public Works is also scheduled to use tax incremental financing revenue from an overperforming district to fund traffic calming improvements along W. Burnham St., the playfield’s southern border.

What’s next for MKE REC? Green Bay Playfield will be the next ribbon cutting for the recreation division. Carmen Playfield and Stark Playfield are under construction. Lincoln Playfield and Modrzejewski Playfield are in planning. Renovation work is still ongoing at the Burnham fieldhouse.

The City of Milwaukee, through MKE Plays, and Milwaukee County Parks are also working on rehabilitating a number of their respective parks.

Ribbon Cutting Photos

Before Photos

Renderings