Tucked between Milwaukee’s newest student apartment building, Eleven 25, and the Best Place at the Historic Pabst Brewery, Zilber Ltd. is planning a small pocket park dedicated to the city’s rich brewing history.
Preservation Park, which is planned at the southeast corner of Juneau Avenue and North 10th Street, will include steel panels along Juneau Avenue showing a timeline narrative of the former Pabst brewery’s development.
“The whole idea of Preservation Park is we’re going to tell the story of this neighborhood and its long history, dominated for many years by the Pabst Brewing Company,” said Dan McCarthy, director of office leasing and development for Zilber Ltd.
The company hopes to begin construction on the park this summer, McCarthy said.
Pabst Brewing Company shut down its downtown Milwaukee brewery in 1996. Milwaukee-based Zilber Ltd. has led a redevelopment of the complex into a mixed-use neighborhood with apartments, a hotel, higher educational facilities and office space.
McCarthy said Preservation Park was always in the plans, and now several years into successful redevelopment of the complex, now called The Brewery, the idea is finally beginning to materialize.
Zilber Ltd submitted an application last week to the city’s Historic Preservation Commission for a certificate of appropriateness for the property.
In addition to the rusted steel panels, which measure 87-foot by 12-foot that will run along Juneau Avenue, there will be a number of 12-inch deep boxes in the ground, covered with glass. Inside, the boxes will contain historical objects that have relevance to the work and events that took place at the brewery.
The south end of the park will be bordered by a sunken garden and harp and lantern fixtures will light up the north and west sidewalk areas.
The Brewery opened Zilber Park in 2009 along the west side of North 10th Street, just south of the Boiler House building.
Preservation Park will be cared for by the same neighborhood improvement district created to care for Zilber Park.
