First Impressions

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Milwaukee. I had always spotted it on the maps and thought it would be an interesting city to check out; however, I had recently come to the conclusion that I probably wasn’t going to make it to every location on the atlas within my lifetime. I figured Milwaukee would be one of those places that would just get passed by in favor of more exotic locales.

Therefore, when I learned I was going to Milwaukee for a five day training class, I was tacitly excited. I say tacit, because it seems most people think you are quite bizarre for being excited about going to Milwaukee. I saw it differently.

It was the perfect opportunity to visit one of those places I thought I would never make it to, while having someone else foot the bill. The only glitch, I could only get out and see the city in the evening.

Seeing the sites in the evening wasn’t a bad prospect since it was June and the days were long. A check of the Weather Channel’s website revealed the possibility of mild 70 degree weather for the week of my visit, which was also going to be a nice contrast to the 90+ degree temps in SoCal.

Milwaukee turned out to be a unique, verdant and charming place in many ways. I found the city’s aged architecture and tree lined neighborhoods reminiscent of the east coast, especially similar to neighborhoods in Queens, New York that I had visited in years past.

It was a city not so large as to be overwhelming and uncable of being taken in within a short visit, and not so small as to be boring after two days. I guess you could say it was the perfect blend of a hip metropolitan area that hadn’t completely sprawled out of control and rural vistas that provided visual and olfactory breathing room from the dense urban areas.

The Third Ward - Urban Form & Design

One of the most interesing neighborhoods in Milwaukee, as I could garner from my short visit, is the Historic Third Ward. The nieghborhood is located south of I-794, east of Cherry Street and west of the lake.

The neighborhood was historically a warehousing and manufacturing district, but I suspect with the change in America’s industrial character, the neighborhood fell into disuse and has now seen a amazing re-birth as something new.

The aesthetically unique warehouse structures have been converted into residential and commercial units without losing their historic industrial character. It is this keeping of character that makes this neighborhood so unique.

Black metal residential balconies with contrasting wood floors overhang Broadway and the riverside boardwalk. They work perfectly with the red brick facades of the structures.

Broadway, the main street of the Third Ward, has been enhanced with angled parking and substantially sized public spaces in the median. During one of my visits I saw a class being held in one of these congregational spaces.

The street is home to a collection of unique shops and restaurants. Looking south from Paul Avenue, Broadway reminded me of an Edward Hopper painting.

The Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design is located in the Third Ward also. The location of an institute of fine arts within this neighborhood has helped with it’s transformation I would imagine. Creative energy is contagious and reverberates through this locale.

I think the Third Ward mirrors the city of Milwaukee as a whole. The city falls within the nation’s rustbelt, and I’m sure has had to grapple with our nation’s changing industrial base. But just as the Third Ward has metamorphed into something new and vibrant, it seems that Milwaukee is re-making itself as well.

Hopefully, the Third Ward can be a model for more of our nation’s former manufacturing centers. With a steady decline in industrial output in many cities, we are going be be faced with ever increasing post-industrial blight.

Prospect / Farwell Avenues

The Prospect Avenue and Farwell Avenue corridor as it moves north from Wisconsin Avenue has a distinct urban form and character.

These two main streets, along with their crossing minor residential streets are lined with large canopied trees. The airspace along the streets is filled with brick apartment buildings and homes. Many of the apartment buildings are tall and provide a denser urban feel to the area.

The homes in this area have a distinct historic character. Along with the verdant, tree linked streets, I was reminded of the streets of some Queens, New York neighborhoods.

There are local corner stores and pubs (some with very old beer label signs hanging outside) in this area that people can walk to and that create a focal point for the neighborhood.

These streets extend from downtown north to the University.

Bay View - Kinnickinnic Avenue

The Bay View neighborhood is located south of downtown Milwaukee and is focused around Kinnickinnic Avenue as it curves its way south.

It is the curving of this main street as it ventures through the neighborhood and intersects with local streets that provides a unique visual quality to the area.

When you are driving down Kinnickinnic Avenue, the non-rectilenear configuration provides a pleasing vista for the eye and the mind.

Bay View has a collection of unique shops and restaurants, as well as pubs (with the same old-school beer brand signs hanging outside) and thrift stores. There might have been a tattoo shop or two if my memory is correct.

This neighborhood has an eccentric persona and a much different social character than the Third Ward.

Downtown / Center City

Downtown Milwaukee was heavily under construction during my visit. The freeways and bridges were torn up and the historic city hall was drapped in scaffolding undergoing a cosmetic cleanup.

Overall, much of downtown had a dated feel to it. Most of the modern high rises, including the tallest building in town, the US Bank building, appeared dated architecturally and took away from the older builidngs that held most of the character. The two exclusions to this were the Art Museum and War Memorial.

The War Memorial, with it’s mosiacs, harsh concrete structure and glass walls creates a modernist vista as Mason Avenue turns sharply in front of it and heads toward the riverside.

I found the War Memorial’s architecture to be beautifully minimalist and scandanavian in character. It created a very unique visual composition poised against a blue sky backdrop.

The Quadracci Pavilion section of the museum looked like a beached cruise ship. It’s white spires also created a stunning visual composition against the blue skies over Lake Michigan to the east.

The Grand Avenue Mall, an enclosed shopping mall, had some life, but did appear to be struggling with leasing all of its spaces. The arcade section of the mall with it’s spiraling staircase and distinct architecture was reminiscent of a classic arcade shopping arena in Europe.

A major transportation renovation was taking place in downtown Milwaukee during this visit. New bridges and retaining walls were being built where the I-94 traverses the downtown.

Unique designs are being incorportated into the new bridges and will offer a new aesthetic dynamic once completed.

West Allis

One other city I had the opportunity to drive through on the way back to my hotel was West Allis.

West Allis was nice in that it had a distinct downtown and a distinct character even though the gridded streets of Milwaukee ran into and through the city as if it could be just another neighborhood within the uber city.

Final Thoughts

Milwaukee is a unique mix of rust-belt manufacturing center and agricultural hub with a unique artistic and hip character all its own. Distinctive architecture, geography and verdant flora make the city a distinct point on the map.

For the city and urban form enthusiast, the city offers numerous aesthetic vistas and unique neighborhoods to explore. Gridded street networks, intermixed with the occasional serpertine avenue create an urban environment that is easily traversed but not bland in character.

After returning to SoCal, I havn’t been tacit about my pleasant surprise upon visiting Milwaukee. I may never get the opportunity to pass through again, but I relish the fact that I did get to know this “Beer City”.

First Impressions

I went to Chicago on an adrenaline pulsed whim. It was one of the many cities on my list of places to go in life.

So one day as I was browsing the web feeling drained from work and the sameness of the city I currently call home, I decided to check fares and hotel rates in Chicago. I saw a deal I liked and went for it. Once you click that purchase button, you know you’re going and there is no turning back.

Chicago turned out to be one of most visually interesting cities I’ve ever been to in the United States. Skyscrapers, unique architecture, amazing urban design elements, beautiful bridges and parks abounded. And that was just in the heart of the city where my trip was focused.

I visited the city in early May 2006. It was the dawn of spring and all of the flowers and flowering trees in the city were in bloom. The skies were blue and there was relatively no humidity in the air.

I stayed within the area of the city called The Loop. It’s probably where most tourists make their home when they visit the city. Either there or in the area north of the river in the Magnificent Mile area.

The one first impression of Chicago that did shock me to a certain extent was how relatively empty the area within The Loop seemed to be on Saturday and Sunday. Many restaurants and shops were closed (the ones that cater to weekday workers). I had to walk all the way to the “touristy focal points” to find food.

However, it was my first stay in Chicago and this one impression may have not been totally accurate. I could have been a little blinded by breakfast cravings.

Urban Design

Beautiful urban design elements permeate the heart of Chicago.

One repeated design element were the grand entry ways that straddled the sides of the streets at major entry points into the city. I think an especially beautiful example is Congress Plaza and Congress Plaza Drive at the Michigan Avenue intersection.

In today’s overly cautious transportation designs, you most likely will never come across an interesting intersection such as the one created by these streets. But it is the curving elegance of Congress Plaza Drive and it’s wide sidewalk and trees as it approaches Michigan Avenue and sweeps past the giant Native American statues and the large monolithic entry ways that evokes such aesthetic pleasure.

These ornate entryways were also repeated on the bridges that cross the river, especially along West Wacker Drive from Michigan Avenue west to Wells Street.

The repetition of these entryways, along with the beauty of the unique draw bridge designs, creates an awesome spectacle for the eye as you look westward down West Wacker.

Chicago also has a spectacular (though I think fairly new) set of stone railings and steps along the river as it meanders through the city. They help frame the river and provide excellent places to stop and take in the architecture.

One last urban design element I’d like to mention, though there are many more, is the incredible collection of public art and public plazas in Chicago.

The most amazing new example is Millenium Park with the stunning Cloud Gate sculpture , the Crown Fountain, the beautifully design gardens and the associated plazas.

The Cloud Gate’s mirrored surface creates exquisitely curved reflections of the Chicago skyline as well as the blue sky. It is surrounded by an open plaza that allows the observer to escape the canyon of skyscrapers and take a long fascinating look into the image reflected in the sculpture.

The Crown Fountain incorporates multimedia imagery into its design and provides a whimsical visual experience at night.

I was also struck by the beauty of the gardens planted in the park. As I walked along the wooden planked boardwalk past the cage of trees, I saw a rabbit hop into the security of the mini-forest. It was nice to see wildlife thriving in such an urban setting.