Domes Project Raises $8 Million in Donations

Mitchell Park Domes’ Tropical Dome. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The effort to revitalize the Mitchell Park Domes recently hit some important benchmarks.

On May 13, the State Building Commission approved a $2 million grant for the project, providing a needed contribution to the layered financing for the $133 million project.

Two days later, the Wisconsin Historical Society approved the Domes for listing on the state historic register. And as of the end of March, the project has raised more than $8 million in private donations since launching its fundraising campaign last year.

All are important milestones for the project, which is anticipated to begin construction in 2027.

When the layered financing was planned out years ago, it baked in a contribution from the state. Without the historic designation, the project would not have access to historic preservation tax credits, and hopes for placement on the National Register would be “dead in the water,” said Christa Beall Diefenbach, executive director of the Milwaukee Domes Alliance (MDA). The credits can cover up to 40% of historically sensitive renovation costs.

The MDA, formerly the Friends of the Domes, planned the Domes project alongside Milwaukee County Parks. Part of the deal will see the MDA assume long-term maintenance and operations costs from Parks, a priority for county policymakers struggling with annual budget deficits.

The organization recently filed its first fundraising report with the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. It shows the project has attracted several major gifts, including a $2 million pledge, three $1 million pledges and a $1 million stock transfer. In total, the group has raised approximately $8.2 million.

The report was not supposed to be released until June, but it was included with the meeting materials for the Milwaukee County Board’s Committee on Finance meeting Thursday.

“Those were the numbers as of March,” Diefenbach said. “We have different numbers to report, and we’ll be doing so in June, but that fundraising is going very well. It’s been an incredible upswell of support from the community.”

The plan is to restore the three Domes one by one. During work on the first Dome, the Show Dome, the plan also calls for turning a greenhouse into an interactive play area for children and families called the Little Sprouts Dome, buildout of a cafe and expansion of the gift shop.

Before construction can begin, MDA must secure all the funding for the first phase of work: approximately $51.6 million. The county has committed $12.5 million, out of $30 million for the total project. The group has fundraising report show it has already raised 48% of the $17.1 million in private gifts it needs. The project also calls for New Market Tax Credit Financing and Historic Preservation Tax Credits.

The recent listing on the state register is an important step toward listing on the National Register of Historic Places. It also unlocks access to state historic preservation tax credits.

MDA is working with a historic preservation consultant, New History, to apply for National Historic Landmark status, which would place the Domes in the same rarefied air as well-known landmarks like the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and, more locally, sites like Milwaukee City Hall and the Pabst Theater.

The state historic recognition was “the last stop for a nomination before it goes to the National Park Service to be listed in the National Register,” Shannon Winterhalter, a director with New History, told Urban Milwaukee.

State approval is a good sign the Domes are on their way to the National Register. “I would say it’s pretty rare for a nomination to pass the state and then just be flat-out rejected by the National Park Service for National Register listings,” Winterhalter said.

The Domes are a strong candidate for becoming a National Historic Landmark because of the “innovative and singular” conoidal design and construction by architect Donald Grieb and engineer Charles Whitney, Winterhalter said.

While the approval unlocks funding, Diefenbach said it does something else, too. “It has also really recognized what we all intuitively understood, which is that the Domes are unique in all the world and something to be honored by everyone throughout Wisconsin.”