Vel Phillips Plaza Opens To Great Fanfare

Vel R. Phillips Plaza. Photos by Jeramey Jannene.

It’s a park, it’s a transit hub, it’s a gathering place.

As of Friday morning, Vel R. Phillips Plaza is officially open. A cafe is expected to join it later this year, and a large public art installation in 2025.

“Isn’t this development fantastic?” said area Alderman Robert Bauman at a ribbon cutting ceremony for the $17.8 million plaza. “This will be Milwaukee’s front door and front yard for many years to come.”

“This is going to be a critical linchpin in seeing more growth, more development not just Downtown, but across the city of Milwaukee,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson.

But perhaps most significantly, it’s a historical marker for the life and legacy of Vel Phillips.

Phillips’ Impact

“It is my hope that with us placing this plaza directly across from the Baird Center, which will host conventions and people from all over the world, that not only will people begin to research and understand who Vel R. Phillips was, her contributions here in Wisconsin, but it will also inspire folks from all over the world about one of our great contributors to social justice,” said Alderwoman Milele A. Coggs, who considered the late Phillips a mentor.

Phillips was the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin Law School, and the first woman and first African American elected to the Common Council where she led a relentless charge for fair housing. She was also the first female judge on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court and the first African American judge in Wisconsin. In 1978, Phillips became the first woman elected to the office of Secretary of State, becoming the first African American to ever win a statewide election. She passed away in 2018, with Coggs leading the council to rename N. 4th Street in her honor.

A series of kiosks at the 30,000-square-foot plaza tell Phillips’ story. They also highlight past winners of the city’s Vel Phillips Trailblazer Award and currently display a democracy-focused art project.

“I know that my mom had a lot of firsts,” said her son Michael Phillips. “But what she really liked to do is laugh… she was a bit of a prankster.” The younger Phillips regaled the large audience with stories of Phillips’ human side, including her love of the Green Bay Packers and ice cream. “That’s the thing I want not to get lost.”

But the speakers, many of whom met Phillips on their own campaign trail or at a Milwaukee Community Brainstorming Conference meeting, don’t want you to forget just how important Phillips was.

“Her presence, her dignity, were a statement all by themselves, but her lifelong commitment to equality and justice were the things for which she is so properly remembered,” said Common Council President José G. Pérez. He said her fight for fair housing, including repeated rejections by her council peers, was “truly a profile in courage.”

“Vel was a pistol,” said Johnson, who served with Phillips on the brainstorming conference. “In those meetings, she commanded attention… we all owe Vel a significant amount of gratitude not just for her service in public office, but her service outside of public office and continuing to move the dialogue forward.”

“I can’t wait to bring my kids down and enjoy some ice cream, and sit in this plaza and share with them some of the stories that Vel shared with me,” said Coggs.

Phillips, who would have turned 100 in 2024, has been honored statewide with the “Year of Vel Phillips.” A statue is also under development for the Wisconsin State Capitol.

About The Plaza

Located along W. Wisconsin Avenue between N. Vel R. Phillips Avenue and N. 5th Street, the plaza occupies a key downtown site that has been overlooked for decades.

A failed urban renewal scheme in the 1980s saw the buildings on the site demolished. The city has used the property as parking in the intervening decades, as it cycled through failed redevelopment efforts.

Now, the rise of the plaza mirrors the rise of the surrounding Westown neighborhood.

Milwaukee Tool, Fiserv and GRAEF have all opened major offices or relocated their corporate headquarters to be within two blocks, the former Grand Avenue Mall is now the mixed-use The Avenue, the convention center underwent a $456 million expansion and is now the Baird Center, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra turned a vacant building into the Bradley Symphony Center and Kohl’s opened its first downtown store across the street.

First proposed in 2019, the plaza is designed to tie all the energy together.

The west end of the plaza is anchored by a 2,900-square-foot building that will be occupied by a cafe from Draft & Vessel owner Nathaniel Davauer. Exterior-facing public restrooms, available for use with events in the plaza, are included in the building. Most of the plaza is covered in brick pavers, trees and concrete walls designed as seating. The southern portion of the plaza is covered in grass.

A future extension of the streetcar is planned to bisect the plaza and its route is clearly visible from the brick paver layout. A new station for the Milwaukee County Transit System‘s Connect 1 east-west bus rapid transit line is located along W. Wisconsin Avenue.

“Let us remember, mass transit is so vital to all of those that choose to use it and those that need to use,” said Milwaukee County Department of Transportation Director Donna Brown-Martin. She said the plaza represents an example of a great partnership between city and county, and endorsed the streetcar being extended through it.

A partnership of The Kubala Washatko Architects, HNTB and landscape architecture firm Saiki Design designed the plaza. Selzer-Ornst Construction Company served as the general contractor with support from Walbec Group, engineering firm Clark Dietz, Rams Contracting and others.

The Department of Public Works and Department of City Development were heavily involved in the project’s development. “I really want to give a shoutout to [senior economic development specialist] Dan Casanova, who played an outsized role in making today happen,” said Johnson.

What’s Next?

The city’s Milwaukee Arts Board and other city agencies have narrowed the field to three for designing the public art commission. Final submissions are due in August and a winner is expected to be picked later in the year. A total of $600,000 is earmarked for the winner.

Finalists include Karyn Olivier, the collaborative team of Nicolas Lampert and Glenn Williams and Ken Lum.

The cafe is still under development. Davauer told Urban Milwaukee that he’s not to the point of estimating an opening date. The business is expected to host pop-ups outside of the building as the interior buildout is completed.

The city has yet to identify a funding source for the streetcar extension, given new state regulations.

The plaza will be located within the “hard zone” of the Republican National Convention, providing an easily-accessible tribute to a prominent Democrat to tens of thousands of visiting Republicans.

The southern half of the site, which covers 55,626 square feet, is being marketed for sale for $3.34 million as part of an attempt to land a multi-building, high-density “landmark development” and, in the interim, continues to be privately operated as a parking lot. A 2016 request for proposals (RFP) drew two competing hotel proposals, but the city advanced neither.

In April 2023, the Common Council allocated $15.75 million from the Park East tax incremental financing (TIF) district to construct the plaza. It was previously estimated to cost $5 million, with the cost increase attributed by Department of City Development officials to previously unknown environmental contamination, inflation, design improvements and the plan to raise a portion of W. Wisconsin Avenue to better connect the plaza with the convention center for pedestrians.

It also allocated $750,000 from the TIF district used to support Fiserv’s move to Downtown for the public art and kiosks. In February, a supplemental $1.3 million allocation from the closure of the Park East TIF district was approved.

Photos

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Ribbon Cutting

2023 Plaza Renderings

2019 Plaza Site Photos

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