New Kenosha museum set to open in HarborPark development
The former industrial site sticks into Lake Michigan like a sore thumb. And more than thumbs were sore after the 1988 shutdown of the Chrysler auto assembly and stamping plant, which cost Kenosha more than 5,000 jobs.
But as the inshore side of the filled site is covered with condos, townhomes and garden apartments, the tip is being turned into an attraction that city fathers hope will drive blood back into the downtown economy. The Kenosha Public Museum — featuring the skeleton of a wooly mammoth excavated from the site — will deliver an attraction unique to southeastern Wisconsin. And the HarborPark development, which encompasses the entire peninsula — will turn the rest of the site into a vital waterfront center.
The museum facility is slated for a grand opening Sept. 14 and will be open to the public the next day.
HarborPark itself is a 69-acre redevelopment zone bounded by downtown Kenosha on the west, Lake Michigan on the east, and the Southport Marina on the south. The project will transform the former industrial land into public gathering places, a promenade, visitor attractions, and a residential neighborhood. Sales of owner-occupied residential units are proceeding well, according to John Bechler of the Kenosha Area Business Alliance.
It all speaks to the value of mature, urban centers, according to Mark Ernst, partner with Engberg Anderson Design Partnership of Milwaukee. Engberg Anderson designed the new museum structure and developed design and architectural guidelines for the rest of the HarborPark development.
According to Ernst, suburbs adjacent to the city have boomed and now compete with the city for development. The suburbs’ frontage on I-94, which skirts the city by a wide berth, gives their retail sectors unbeatable access. But Ernst says suburbs — and even some full-blown cities — cannot rank with the city when it comes to cultural projects.
“Very few cities its size have this kind of vision going on,” Ernst said of Kenosha. “Other cities are struggling with this, but they don’t have the leadership that Kenosha has right now. In the meantime, places like Pleasant Prairie are competing with Kenosha — but do they add up to anything? Probably not.”
This is not to say the city does not have hurdles to mount, however.
“Downtown Kenosha is as dead as any sleepy little downtown could be,” Ernst said.
“Right now, we are surviving,” Ray Pehlivan, owner of the Train Depot Café & Restaurant said. The café is located inside the Kenosha Metra station just west of HarborPark.
“Here at the train station — it has been OK,” Pehlivan said. “We have ups and downs but that’s OK.”
While Pehlivan supports the museum development, there are other things he would prefer to see happen downtown.
“For me, it would be nicer if they had more train service,” Pehlivan said. “The train service is kind of sporadic. There are no trains between 9 a.m. and 2:40 p.m. A lot of the commuters have already asked for improvement of the train service.” Kenosha is the northerly terminus for Metra, a Chicago-area commuter line, but there has been discussion of extending the line to Racine or Milwaukee.
Despite the spotty commuter train schedule, Pehlivan said he does have a small lunch crowd, which he hopes will grow as activity picks up at HarborPark.
“I see a good future a year or two down the line,” Pehlivan said. “There will be progress — but slowly.”
Pehlivan and others are hoping that a few million dollars will go a long way to improving things for everyone. The museum itself will cost $7.2 million — including construction costs of $5.5 million and about $2 million for exhibits. The project will drastically increase the size of the public museum — from 5,000 square feet in its existing building to about 45,000 square feet — allowing the institution to display a larger percentage of its collection.
The museum has already moved into its new facility, and staff is finishing off the exhibits. The museum is benefiting from extensive donations from the private sector, and the HarborPark development as a whole will attract about $75 million in private investment, according to planning documents.
“The private sector has really come through,” Engberg Anderson principal Joann Johnson said. “We have also received a sizable grant from the state to market the museum to eight states.”
Kenosha Area Visitors Bureau President Mary Galligan was successful in getting a Joint Effort Marketing (JEM) grant from the Wisconsin Department of Tourism. The $29,598 grant will reimburse the bureau for advertising and direct-mail expenses.
“The JEM grant was for the category of a new ongoing event,” Galligan said. “The criteria for the application is creation of a new event to be held consecutive years that will drive more tourism into the area. And it needs to occur in a shoulder season — so in other words not May, June, July or August. The event — Mammoth Mania — will coincide during its first year with the grand opening of the museum, and will take place in mid-September each year thereafter.”
JEM dollars will be used to market the event through direct mail, brochures and magazine ads within a five-state region. Galligan said she hopes to draw as many as 15,000 people during the initial 10-day event. This year, Mammoth Mania will feature Echoes of Earth and Sky — a Native American dance and musical performance — and hands-on activities for children and adults. Also featured will be a laser light show and tours of the Denis Sullivan, a tall ship visiting from Milwaukee. Because school will be back in session, Galligan said events during weekdays will be aimed at seniors while evening and weekend activities will target children and parents.
Much of the marketing push will be comprised of direct mail to lists pulled from the Wisconsin Department of Tourism, museum groups and the bureau’s own database. Advertising is also being placed in publications, including Midwest Living and the American Automobile Association publication Home & Away.
Education key
The focus on school groups is a natural, Ernst said, because museums are focusing more and more on education. That trend is reflected in the physical structure of the museum.
“The plan recognizes that the educational side of the program is about equal with the exhibit side of the plan,” Ernst said. “Education is becoming more and more a focus of museums. It has a big education agenda. The building also has a multi-purpose room where a lot of things can happen.”
Children — and adults — will get multiple threads of information about the natural history of the land the museum was built on. The actual site the mammoth was excavated from is located within the museum, and is preserved. Real fossils are embedded in the floor.
“We got to the idea of a glacier slamming through the center of the building, creating a lobby,” Ernst said. “There is a glacial till wall — made out of the actual fieldstones — rubble left behind by the glacier. It is a curvy wall made of glacial till that will tell the story of the land. We also used blue glass in a couple areas to symbolize the glacier itself.”
The mammoth is located in the exhibit space itself, and is visible through a corner window.
“You can see the mammoth from the street — kind of like the dog in the window,” Ernst said.
The educational focus of the facility originated from a tour of other museums that the architects, city and museum officials took during the planning process.
“We got in a van with Mayor John Antaramian, city administrator Nick Arnold, curator Dan Joyce and museum director Paula Touhey and went to the Field Museum in Chicago — and other museums,” Ernst said. “We were trying to get a handle on what the mayor’s vision was. We like to spend time with our clients sharing ideas on common ground.”
Ernst said one word kept coming out of the mayor’s mouth.
“He kept using the word interactive — which means to some people pushing a lot of buttons,” Ernst said. “But we thought it was more of an intellectual thing.”
The epitome of this interactivity was already characterized by existing education efforts at the current museum.
“Nancy Matthews — head of the education program — has carts of stuff that they bring out and let kids see and touch,” Ernst said. “That’s hands-on — interactive. You are engaged — with a person telling you a story. The best museums engage you in a real way. It is a subtle idea, but an important distinction. Museums aren’t about seeing a bunch of dead artifacts, and running out the door.”
Natural history and art
Apart from being what Ernst thinks is one of only two natural history museums built in the 20th century — the other being in Atlanta — the second floor of the museum will feature traveling exhibits and art.
“Dan Joyce is primary curator,” Ernst said, adding that Joyce came to the museum from the Field Museum in Chicago. “He has a very eclectic approach to exhibit design. He tells more than one story. Geological history, natural history, animal and plant materials are all in one exhibit rather than isolated from each other … The Milwaukee Public Museum does this to a certain extent. But Joyce is influenced by the fact that he is limited in space. The combination is probably based somewhat on necessity — they really do not have enough storage room. The size of the new building is not overwhelmingly large. It has a focus to it that gives it an intimate scale. One thing we did not want to lose is the intimate feeling they had in their existing building.”
August 31, 2001 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
