Local Companies Drive Construction of the Future Museum, Exterior Construction Expected to Finish in 2025

MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM), along with its construction partners at Mortenson and ALLCON, today announced that more than 30 Wisconsin-based companies are supporting the construction of the Future Museum. Exterior construction is expected to be complete by the end of 2025.

“The Milwaukee Public Museum has always been Wisconsin’s museum of natural history. Throughout our 142-year history and in each of our three locations, the Museum has always been uplifted by the work of Wisconsinites – from the community members who have influenced exhibit creation to the scientists who gathered collections items across the state and the researchers here at MPM and Wisconsin universities who continue to generate new knowledge from the artifacts and specimens in our care,” said MPM President & CEO Dr. Ellen Censky. “As the future home of this institution is constructed, MPM is proud to continue that legacy of local connection and Wisconsin pride, while also supporting the state’s economy through job creation and support for local businesses and tradespeople.”

With footings firmly in place and the concrete poured for the first two stories of the five-story building, construction is well underway at the corner of 6th Street and McKinley Avenue in downtown Milwaukee.

The number of contractors engaged both on- and off-site to make this iconic building a reality continues to grow. The following are some of the many Wisconsin-based companies contracted by Mortenson:

• ALLCON, Butler
• Arbon Equipment Corporation: A Rite-Hite Company, Milwaukee
• B V Tetzlaff, Brookfield
• Belonger Corporation, Inc., West Bend (in partnership with Grunau Company)
• Central Door Solutions, Plover & New Berlin
• Common Links Construction, Brookfield
• CornerStoneOne, Brookfield
• CW Purpero, Oak Creek
• Doral Corporation, Milwaukee
• Duwe Metal Products, Menomonee Falls
• Gateway Concrete Forming Systems, Port Washington
• Grunau Company, Oak Creek (in partnership with Belonger Corporation, Inc.)
• JCP Construction, Milwaukee
• JM Brennan, Milwaukee
• JWC Building Specialties, Hartland
• Klein-Dickert, Pewaukee
• KMI Construction, New Berlin
• L&A Crystal, Grafton
• Lee Mechanical, Franklin
• Lemberg Electric Company, Brookfield
• Lifetime Radon Solutions, Delafield
• PCF-CLC, Sturtevant (A Postorino Construction Finishes and Common Links Construction joint venture)
• Reynolds Rigging & Crane Service, Madison
• Stonecast Products, Germantown
• TK Elevators, Menomonee Falls
• Watt Construction, Milwaukee
• Wells Concrete, Waukesha
• Zenith Tech, Waukesha

One of the unique requirements of a museum building is the ability to set environmental controls tailored to the specific needs of different exhibit and collection spaces that house priceless artifacts and specimens. To meet this need, Mortenson contracted with BelongGru – a partnership between Grunau and Belonger, two Milwaukee-based mechanical contractors – to install state-of-the-art mechanical systems that will regulate heating, cooling and humidity across all museum spaces.

“With more than 100 years of combined experience, we are honored and excited to bring our expertise and the dedication of our diverse team to collaborate with Mortenson,” said Grunau Company Senior Project Manager John Buckentin. “Together, we look forward to delivering a one-of-a-kind building with unparalleled exhibit spaces for Milwaukee and the surrounding Wisconsin communities.”

These companies join a growing list of Wisconsin-based organizations involved in Wisconsin’s largest cultural project. In addition to the construction trades, more than 40 other Wisconsin-based vendors are engaged in design, administration and packing efforts for the project.

As exterior construction wraps up this year, interior Museum construction will continue throughout 2025 and extend into 2026, alongside exhibit fabrication. The Wisconsin Wonders capital campaign, with a goal to raise $240 million in total, has secured $105 million in private and $86 million in public dollars, with fundraising continuing into 2027, when the Future Museum is set to open.

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About the Milwaukee Public Museum
The Milwaukee Public Museum is Wisconsin’s natural history museum, welcoming visitors from all 72 Wisconsin counties, all 50 states, and from many countries around the globe. Located in downtown Milwaukee, the Museum was chartered in 1882, opened to the public in 1884, and currently houses more than 4 million objects in its collections. MPM has three floors of exhibits that encompass life-size dioramas, walk-through villages, world cultures, dinosaurs, a rainforest, and a live butterfly garden, as well as the Daniel M. Soref Dome Theater & Planetarium. MPM is operated by Milwaukee Public Museum, Inc., a private, non-profit company, housed in a county-owned facility with collections that are held in trust and supported by Milwaukee County for the benefit of the public.

About the Future Museum
The Milwaukee Public Museum, Wisconsin’s natural history museum, will be relocating from its current location on Wells Street in downtown Milwaukee to a newly constructed building due to open in early 2027.

To be located on a 2.4-acre site at the corner of Sixth and McKinley Streets in the Haymarket neighborhood adjacent to the city’s Deer District, the Future Museum will be the largest cultural project in Wisconsin history. Heavily influenced by the ecological histories of Milwaukee and Wisconsin, the design of the new Museum will be reminiscent of the geological formations in Mill Bluff State Park, emblematic of the region’s diversity of landscapes formed by the movements of water through time. The building will be approximately 200,000 square feet, including five stories, with an additional 50,000-square-foot collections storage building.

To learn more about the Future Museum, visit mpm.edu/future.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.