Could New Coggs Building Go Solar?

Conceptual rendering of new Department of Health and Human Services building. Rendering by Engberg Anderson Architects.

Two Milwaukee County supervisors have sponsored a resolution asking the county administration to consider adding solar panels to a new $42 million human services building in the King Park neighborhood.

The county is developing a 60,000-square-foot building for the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) at 1230 W. Cherry St., less than one block north of the Marcia P. Coggs Human Services Building. The new building, for which construction started in October, will retain the Coggs name.

The county has plans to eventually raze the original Coggs building, 1220 W. Vliet St., in order to construct additional parking for the facility, but it remains open to proposals for repurposing the structure, which was originally a Schuster’s department store. The development site includes the L-shaped 2.26-acre Coggs parcel and another 0.78-acre adjacent parcel.

The resolution, sponsored by Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson and Sup. Priscilla E. Coggs-Jones, asks for the administration to study the addition of solar panels to the parking lot at the new building.

“Using solar energy decreases carbon emissions from Milwaukee County operations, supporting the County’s Climate Action 2050 Plan,” the supervisors wrote in their resolution, “and installing solar in the New Coggs Center parking lot would further increase the sustainability of the development.”

The county is engaged in a multi-year planning process to develop a plan for achieving zero carbon emissions by 2050, and a 45% reduction from 2005 emission levels by 2030. Nicholson also sponsored the legislation that kickstarted this project.

The new Coggs Center will be the headquarters for the county’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the massive human services agency that comprises approximately 50% of the county’s annual $1.3 billion budget. It will also include space for a Frieden’s Food Pantry.

The county began pursuing a new building after a 2021 assessment found the current Coggs Center building was a financial liability. The conclusion was based on years of deferred maintenance and the likely departure of the building’s only paying tenant, the state Department of Health Services (DHS), which did ultimately move out in 2022.

The new building will be the first designed specifically for the mission of DHHS, and will be the county’s human services building in line with ADA requirements that the current Coggs Center building does not meet.

The building is being designed by Engberg Anderson Architects and JP Cullen is the general contractor.