Milwaukee bounces back, sustainably
Posted October 5, 2009 in Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably
It's been terrific to observe and report on America's great downtown comebacks, quite clearly a trend at this point. The latest set of facts I have run across concerns Milwaukee, courtesy of the very well-written blog Urban Engagement Webcity.
The story cites progressive zoning changes that dramatically boosted downtown housing and the removal of a downtown freeway segment that opened up land for walkable development, both attributed to the leadership of former mayor John Norquist. Here's some more from the story:
"The city has also successfully capitalized on its most prominent asset, the Milwaukee River. Collaborative efforts between downtown businesses, nonprofits and city government have led to the revitalization of a stretch of walkable landscape along the city's downtown waterfront. The "River Walk" now attracts locals and tourists alike to its outdoor dining, retail, and community arts activities . . .
"While the downtown area serves as the crown jewel for central Milwaukee's resurgence, there are several communities on the periphery that hold bragging rights of their own. With a swanky public market, the Historic Third Ward district continues its upward trajectory of revitalization; the Brady Street district, a former '60s hippie outpost, now attracts an eclectic mix of creatives, bohemians, and early retirees to its retail and housing amenities."
One of my favorite projects enrolled in the LEED-ND pilot program is The Brewery, the comprehensive revitalization of downtown Milwaukee's once-badly-declined Pabst Brewery property, covering some 20 acres and including the restoration of over 20 buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places, all centrally located and highly transit-accessible. The developer, Joseph J. Zilber, is aiming for a platinum-level certification (not yet confirmed), and has adopted a set of sustainability guidelines (table of contents here) intended to guide the project through a range of practices, including - in addition to the preservation and reuse of historic buildings - recycling of construction demolition, contamination abatement, landscaping, pocket parks, efficient street lighting, heat island reduction, water efficiency and stormwater management, green building practices, and more.
There's a small but interesting walk-through video on the project's website. All of the photos and renderings accompanying this post other than the one at the top are from the project. The last one on the right is from Dave Reid, whose Urban Milwaukee blog is highly recommended.
Kaid Benfield writes (almost) daily about community, development, and the environment. For more posts, see his blog's home page.
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Comments
Dave Reid — Oct 5 2009 11:58 AM
Thanks for the mention! In the 10 years I've been in Milwaukee the change has been dramatic. And amazingly we still have new development in our core ongoing. Two apartment buildings in the Third Ward, The Brewery project, and two high-rise apartments will be proposed this month... moving forward.
Jeramey Jannene — Oct 5 2009 12:48 PM
Kaid,
The Brewery is certainly an absolutely outstanding project, and at this point most of Milwaukee doesn't realize it's happening (we'll take the blame on that for not doing an article on UrbanMilwaukee.com recently).
I have one small thing to quibble over, and certainly not your fault for not knowing this. In terms of transit access, the location is a little lackluster. To get east to anywhere downtown (where the action is) you would likely be transferring, walking a significant distance (5+ long blocks), or waiting for a rather infrequent bus.
It's on the northwest edge of downtown and is unfortunately currently separated from the action by super blocks (museum, stadium, county government, massive parking structures, MPD) and the Park East Freeway land (which is only a temporary thing).
As the Park East land fills in, the streetcar gets built, and more apartments open in the Brewery it's likely we'll see better transit access to the area, but as of right now it's about as close to downtown as you can get without being well-served.
Simply finishing out the project will greatly increase the attractiveness and walk-ability of the area, which will also encourage walking to existing transit routes along Wisconsin Ave. Westown has a long way to go, but this project is such an amazing improvement.
Thank you for the positive words about the project, it's certainly one of the most exciting things to happen in Milwaukee in the past 20 years (if not more).
Don Arambula — Oct 5 2009 01:19 PM
Recently I visited the Milwaukee waterfront and observed the following:
Other than a number of national chain restraurants, the waterfront is attractive but is sleepy and feels like a backwater.
The residential development density is way too low- a lost opportunity to activate the waterfront.
Kaid @ NRDC — Oct 5 2009 01:40 PM
Thanks for the additional perspective and, Jeramey, thanks for the great photo as well. Bus transit tends to follow development more than vice versa, so let's hope that happens for the Brewery. Since it's been such a large, essentially vacant parcel for so long, I guess it should be unsurprising that the actual access is a little less than I had thought.
Don, interesting observation about the waterfront. For these old Rust Belt cities, sometimes progress in small increments is still worth celebrating. Whatever the density on the waterfront, they have still managed to increase the residential population of downtown from only 700 to 15,000 today, a remarkable achievement-in-progress.
David Baker — Oct 5 2009 07:42 PM
Kaid, thanks for the great write-up on Milwaukee. We don't hear enough about all of the positives going on in our city.
@Don- Just curious, as a 13 year resident of Milwaukee, what area of the lakefront did you vist? I can't think of any area that has chain restaurants (and certainly not a number of them). Our lakefront is mostly parkland (a legacy, and I think one of the strengths of the city, of our series of Socialist mayors).
Nicholas Crawford — Oct 5 2009 11:52 PM
I read this blog every day and did a double take when I saw Milwaukee! We're certainly fighting a daily battle to make positive changes here, and your entry here is a terrific encouragement. Thank you!
Dave Reid — Oct 6 2009 01:06 AM
@Don Milwaukee, WI? Just like David Baker pointed out I'm curious where you would find any chain restaurants on Milwaukee's lakefront? or really near downtown? Further Milwaukee's population density could definitely be better, but it is much better than a lot of comparable cities.