See The Three Options to Redesign Red Arrow Park
Key downtown park could get new features designed to increase summer and winter use.
Red Arrow Park. Photo by Urban Milwaukee staff.
There are now three options on the table for the future of Red Arrow Park, 920 N. Water St.
The design team, a partnership of Milwaukee-based The Kubala Washatko Architects (TKWA) and national firm OLIN, presented conceptual options Thursday evening at an open house meeting at Milwaukee City Hall.
All three options would preserve the park’s distinctive feature, an ice skating rink, in some form, with either a new rink or a skating ribbon. A ribbon, included in only one of the options, is a trail-like feature where skaters follow a pathway through the park instead of skating loops in an oval. The options that maintain a skating rink would include water spray jets to activate the space in warmer months.
The city’s 2040 Downtown Plan, approved in 2023 and also designed in part by TKWA, calls for improving the park as part of a larger catalytic project to improve Water Street. Park improvements would yield an “active public space with year-round programming, improved park edges, more seating, places for protests and performances and a large sculpture on the upper terrace.” A $500,000 allocation is funding the latest design work.
The 1.2-acre park was created from a parking lot in 1970 and redesigned to include an ice rink and the warming house/cafe space in 1999. The cafe, as of 2025, is occupied by a Biggby Coffee cafe.
A funding source to support actual construction work has yet to be publicly identified.
All three options would reduce the size of the 14,500-square-foot “lawn area” in the current design but increase the number of trees on the site. Two options, The Commons and The Garden, would eliminate the lawn entirely. The Commons would increase the paved area of the park. The Garden would eliminate the lawn to help create space for the skating ribbon; it would also nearly double the amount of “enhanced planting” space that hosts flower beds, trees and other greenery. The Courtyard option would create a 4,650-square-foot lawn instead of the existing, divided space.
Overhead canopies, intended to create comfortable seating areas on hot days, are included in each design.
Each design concept would maintain the Red Arrow memorial and add a memorial for Dontre Hamilton.
The Red Arrow name is a formal recognition of the U.S. Army’s 32nd Division, which fought in France in World War I. The division comprised National Guard members from Wisconsin and Michigan and was given the nickname “Les Terribles.” It suffered more than 14,000 casualties in six months. The arrow moniker is a nod to breaking through the Hindenburg Line in 1918. An eight-foot-tall granite monument, in the shape of a red arrow, is located in the middle of the park. It is the second Red Arrow Park, replacing one lost to the Marquette Interchange‘s construction.
Hamilton, in 2014, was killed after sleeping in the park by Milwaukee Police Department officer Christopher Manney, an incident that spurred Manney’s firing, a public push for change to police practices and a sobering documentary. Since the tragic shooting, the park has become a frequent gathering place for protests.
None of the plans call for modifications to the stairs and raised area above the cafe space. That space is connected to the publicly accessible but privately owned MGIC headquarters complex.
The 2040 Downtown Plan also calls for the establishment of a new nonprofit group to maintain and program Red Arrow, Cathedral Square Park, Zeidler Union Square, and Pere Marquette Park.
The project is being jointly pursued by Milwaukee County, the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee Downtown, Business Improvement District #21. The park is formally owned by the county, but is heavily used by Milwaukee Downtown for events and occasional city events.
Individuals who were unable to attend the meeting can share feedback on the design concepts via an online survey.
Design Concepts
Meeting
Red Arrow Park Current Site
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