City of Milwaukee officials recently unveiled the designs proposed by four competing teams for the Lakefront Gateway Plaza project.
From the looks of those proposals, it is going to be very difficult to decide which design team is the winner.
“They are all really exciting,” said Vanessa Koster, planning manager for the City of Milwaukee.
But even more important than that decision will be the answers to these questions: What is the Lakefront Gateway Plaza project actually going to cost? And how will it be paid for?
The preliminary cost estimate for the project is $26 million, Koster said. City officials hope to fund the project with a combination of private donations and government grants, she said. Officials are hoping the quality of the design will excite the philanthropic community and result in a surge of private contributions.
Public feedback will be gathered during the summer on the four design proposals.
“We have gotten a lot of responses,” Koster said. “There is a lot of interest and excitement.”
This fall, a selection committee will choose the winning design team. Koster declined to name the members of the selection committee.
The Lakefront Gateway Plaza is planned for a 1.5-acre site between the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Summerfest grounds. The plaza will be bounded by Michigan Street, Lincoln Memorial Drive, Art Museum Drive and the future extension of Clybourn Boulevard.
The Lakefront Gateway Plaza project will be “catalytic,” Koster said and, “will shape how everyone uses the lakefront.”
Each design proposal features pedestrian bridges that connect to The Couture, a proposed 44-story luxury apartment tower that Barrett Lo Visionary Developments wants to build at the site of the Downtown Transit Center southwest of Lincoln Memorial Drive and Michigan Street. The county and city are in a legal battle with parks advocacy group Preserve Our Parks to establish the development rights of the site, which the parks group says was originally in the lakebed, and that therefore, private development should not be allowed. A circuit court judge recently sided with the city and county, but the case could be appealed.
The Lakefront Gateway Plaza is part of an effort to reshape and improve the lakefront area. That will include the planned reconfiguration of the Lake Interchange and the extension of Lincoln Memorial Drive south into the Historic Third Ward.
Last year, 24 design teams from around the country responded to a request for qualification to submit entries in the Lakefront Gateway design contest. Officials with the city, county, Milwaukee County Parks Department and neighboring stakeholders selected four teams to submit designs for the competition.
Now, we can take a look at those design proposals. They can be viewed at www.milwaukee.gov/lakefrontplaza, where the public is encouraged to vote for its favorite.
The Hanging Gardens of Milwaukee
A team led by Los Angeles-based AECOM, which also includes: URS; Tillotson Design Associates; Cynthia Reeves; and Delta Fountains submitted a design proposal for the Lakefront Gateway Plaza that it calls the Hanging Gardens of Milwaukee.
The AECOM group’s proposal features two pedestrian bridges over Lincoln Memorial Drive, one a swooping bridge landing at a hill created south of Clybourn, the other a spiraling garden loop in the middle of the Lakefront Gateway Plaza. The garden loop bridge would have vegetation growing from it, creating the hanging garden effect.
The group’s design also includes a flexible event space nested within the garden loop, a mirrored “reflected forest” with the loop structure offering outdoor seating and program space, additional gardens, an enclosed exhibition hall, an amphitheater on top of the exhibition hall, and a central fountain/skating rink/fog cloud that could be used as a splash pad, ice rink or sit dry for communal gatherings.
Urban Confluence
A team led by Milwaukee-based GRAEF, which also includes: PFS Studio; Milwaukee-based Rinka Chung Architecture; Dan Euser Water Architecture; and Milwaukee-based NEWaukee submitted a design proposal for the Lakefront Gateway Plaza that it calls Urban Confluence.
The project has pedestrian bridges from O’Donnell Park over Michigan Street to The Couture and another from The Couture over Lincoln Memorial Drive to the Lakefront Gateway Plaza.
The pedestrian bridges would have flowing water along the sides that would flow all the way to the Lakefront Gateway Plaza to integrate with a variety of water elements. The plan would add numerous water features, a large water feature area that could be used as an ice skating rink in the winter, and numerous trees. It also includes a lighted beacon that would change color based on the weather, pavilions, and “water veils.” The plan also suggests that East Clybourn Street could become an important pedestrian connection between downtown and the lakefront.
Milwaukee’s Lakefront Landing
A team led by New York-based James Corner Field Operations, which also includes: Milwaukee-based La Dallman; Robert Silman Associates; Marilu Knode; HLB Lighting; Applied Ecological Services; and CCS International submitted a design proposal for the Lakefront Gateway Plaza that it calls Milwaukee’s Lakefront Landing.
The design features a long, curving pedestrian bridge that starts at O’Donnell Park, crosses Michigan Street, touches the edge of The Couture, crosses Lincoln Memorial Drive and continues to the Lakefront Gateway Plaza. The design also includes overlooks along the pedestrian bridge, a gathering lawn, flowering gardens, a water plaza, a pavilion that can be used for an ice skating rink during the winter, seating steps, stormwater terraces and a gateway arch bridge over a pedestrian walkway.
Transformative connection
A team led by the Solana Beach, Calif.-based Office of James Burnett, which also includes: Milwaukee-based Johnsen Schmaling Architects; Buro Happold Engineering; Focus Lighting; Shore Art Advisory; K. Singh & Associates; and Fountain Source also submitted a design proposal.
The team’s design includes a pedestrian bridge over Lincoln Memorial Drive that connects to an overlook and elevated walkway on the west side of the Lakefront Gateway Plaza. The design also includes a rock wall, a water feature, a pavilion and a large lawn area. The lawn would have a hill sloping down to a flat area where an ice skating rink could be set up in the winter. The hill could be used for sledding in the winter.
See more images of the Lakefront Gateway Plaza designs at www.milwaukee.gov/lakefrontplaza and cast a vote for your favorite.
