New Couple Attempting To Build House On Tricky Historic Site

Goldman-Minchillo House proposal. Rendering by Purnell Architecture.

A proposal to build a new house in a historic district on Milwaukee’s East Side is on hold, but perhaps only temporarily this time. The proposal is expected to be able to proceed after a series of minor revisions between Historic Preservation Commission staff members and the couple seeking to build the home.

Anna Goldman, a nurse practitioner, and Johnpierre Minchillo, a contractor, are seeking to build a 4,400-square-foot house at 2409 N. Terrace Ave. near Lake Michigan and the eastern end of North Avenue.

It’s the second home proposed for the grass lot in two years. Real estate developer Juli Kaufmann and partner Mike Maschek proposed to build a personal residence on the site in 2022, before walking away after the historic commission twice delayed the proposal and the staff member assigned to the project changed.

The latest proposal, according to Minchillo, comes after the couple and architect Shawn Purnell of Purnell Architecture first met with commission staff four months ago to get guidance on designing the house.

The new house would join two new houses built for New Land Enterprises business partners Tim Gokhman and Ann Shuk and their families. Those houses went through an extensive approval process dating back to 2018 as neighbors, with the support of then-alderman Nik Kovac, petitioned for the vacant site to be included in the North Point North Historic District. The neighbors claimed the site was always intended to be added to the district as part of the early 2000s expansion agreement with Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital. Gokhman and architect Jason Korb first needed to wait for the district to be expanded, then work with the commission on the design of the houses. The historic commission has oversight of the exterior of all structures, regardless of age, in a city-designated historic district.

The context in which the new houses sit is about as diverse as they come in Milwaukee, despite being in a historic district. At the rear of the site is a multi-level parking structure attached to the hospital’s Water Tower Medical Commons building. Across N. Terrace Avenue is a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Immediately to the north is a German Renaissance-style brick house. The development site, which Gokhman and Shuk parceled into three equal-sized lots, was created by the hospital in the 1960s when it demolished a mansion for parking.

“The primary concern the staff had was with the blank side gable expanse,” said commission staffer Andrew Stern on Monday in presenting the staff report. There are also concerns with the size and location of egress windows,

“I think it looks pretty acceptable,” said commissioner and UW-Milwaukee architecture professor Matt Jarosz.

The structure would have an “arctic white” brick veneer, steel windows and metal roof. A three-car garage would have a covered patio above, which Purnell said would maximize the amount of usable outdoor space on the tight lot.

The central point of contention for the Kaufmann-Maschek house was its 23-foot setback. The new house is proposed to be set back 28 feet, which is within the formula allowed in the historic district and between the distance of the houses on each side of it. An October 2022 letter called for the Kaufmann house to be set back 30 feet. But Minchillo said Monday that achieving that kind of setback would require shrinking the house. The rear of the site has a 10-foot easement from the parking structure and a 10-foot easement for a We Energies utility vault, with the proposed structure sitting on the edge of the buildable portion of the lot.

The couple purchased the property for $280,000 in June. Kaufmann and Maschek purchased the property for $325,000 in 2021 according to city assessment records.

The commission voted to hold the house for further revisions, including a landscaping plan. It next meets on Dec 4.

Goldman-Minchillo Renderings

Kaufmann-Maschek Renderings

September 2022 Photos

Shuk House Renderings

Gokhman House Renderings

Pre-Construction Photos

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Related Legislation: File 230900