New Murals Coming To Skywalk System
Murals will bookend Plankinton Arcade building in heavily-traveled corridor.
Partially-complete, 2nd Street skywalk mural from Alex Couto. Image from Milwaukee Downtown.
Not content to add color to just the outside of buildings, Milwaukee Downtown, Business Improvement District #21, is now coordinating the installation of murals in the skywalk system.
Work began this week on two murals. Each piece will be between 75 and 100 feet in length and 10 and 12 feet in height, spanning the entire length of the skywalk bridge it occupies. The pieces are expected to be completed in two weeks.
Alex Couto of The Couto Brothers is painting a mural in the skywalk segment that spans N. 2nd St., just south of W. Wisconsin Ave. The segment, which held a coffee shop during the final days of the Shops of Grand Avenue, connects The Avenue office complex and Third Street Market Hall with the Plankinton Arcade building.
Keen observers will note that in 2020 the business improvement district coordinated the painting of an exterior mural on the opposite side of the wall Couto is now painting. Kenosha-based artist Jaime Brown painted the piece in partnership with Karim Jabbari.
Couto, a Milwaukee native that now resides in Los Angeles, has worked with Milwaukee Downtown before. With his brother Chris, the two were one of four artist groups that painted freeway support columns under Interstate 794 in 2020 as part of the Brighten the Passage project. Nearly a decade ago the brothers also painted a vibrant mural on the side of a Walker’s Point building, but it was removed when the building was recently redeveloped.
A second skywalk mural is being painted a block to the east on the segment over N. Plankinton Ave. Milwaukee-based artist Dave Watkins is leading that piece, which will be visible to those moving between the ASQ Center and Plankinton Arcade.
Watkins, like Couto, was one of the artists that participated in the Brighten the Passage project. He has also supported Milwaukee Downtown by offering live painting at in-person events such as Downtown Employee Appreciation Week.
The project is being funded by Hempel Companies, which now owns much of the former mall complex, and Milwaukee Downtown.
The two new murals will join a 2019 mural by German artist Claudia Chaseling that was added to the 310W building skywalk by property owner Time Equities.
The skywalk system is primarily oriented on an east-west axis along Wisconsin Avenue through the Westown neighborhood, but provides a number of spur connections to adjacent buildings.
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