Milwaukee's Ugliest Building: On the Path to Renewal

Join members of the Wisconsin Trust for Historic Preservation on Thursday, September 12 to learn more about the path to renewal for Milwaukee’s “Ugliest Building.”

The free event, co-hosted in partnership with the Historic Preservation Institute and MSOE, welcomes students and local preservation advocates for to an important discussion onsite.

 

Thursday, September 12
4:30 - 5:30 PM | Food, drinks, and socializing
5:30 - 6:00 PM | Presentation and building tours

Location: 324 N 15th St. Milwaukee, WI

Free to attend. No registration required

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Read the excerpt below for more on the building and the renewal effort:

A proposal to convert a long-vacant Menomonee Valley industrial building into apartments has received initial approval from city officials, but still faces an uphill battle.

The plan’s zoning change was approved on Monday, March 25 at a Milwaukee Plan Commission meeting, but the project faces several opponents including nearby businessowners and Milwaukee’s Department of City Development.

Building owner, Ken Breunig initially planned to convert the building into an office building, but at the commission hearing, he said the building’s structural issues prevent it from being able to handle heavy loads tied to office use.

Breunig instead wants to create around 45 apartments with monthly rents of $1,500 to $2,000. Marquette University students and staff would be the primary market, he said, along with people working in the valley and downtown.

The fire-damaged, vandalized building likely has three to five years before further deterioration makes it impossible to renovate, said Breunig, an engineer who’s redeveloped other historic buildings.

Read the full article: City panel gives initial approval to redevelopment of historic Menomonee Valley building

Saving Wisconsin's Sacred Places: Architectural Landmarks | Taliesin Workshop

You’re invited to join the WTHP at Taliesin for a compelling workshop on Wisconsin’s sacred places, held October 25-26.

Saving important Wisconsin architectural landmarks is a fundamental mission of the WTHP. Together with the HPI at UWM, the trust will be offering a two-day workshop on saving churches, temples, synagogues and other sacred places. Topics will be focused on the challenges of proper documentation along with strategies for retention and reuse of these landmark places in towns throughout Wisconsin.

AGENDA
The two-day workshop will include a combination of lectures and discussion groups. As a workshop, participants will engage in hands-on demonstrations of droning, building laser scanning, photogrammetry and object scanning. The Historic Tax Credit portion will include case studies of Wisconsin places that have effectively used tax credits for religious and nonprofit organizations.

The workshop will include an extensive exhibition of drawings and virtual reality devices for an advanced understanding of these landmarks. Site tours of local buildings and places will be included.

Review the full agenda and event information on the workshop homepage.

COSTS
This is intended to be a free workshop with drinks and some food provided. Participants can join for both days or only one with overnight accommodations independently.

The purpose of this workshop, like the other WTHP workshops, is to bring together a variety of preservation-minded people who can share knowledge and success stories with others and continue to make Wisconsin one of the best states for architectural heritage stewardship.

AUDIENCE
This workshop is intended to bring together a wide range of people involved in the art and business of saving architectural landmarks in small and mid-size towns. This year’s workshop will focus on great sacred places.

Local, state, and national organizations will come together to offer the very latest information on a variety of issues. All of them will be related to the struggles that owners, developers, architects, contractors, craftsmen, city officials, and others have with these important landmarks.

Review the full agenda and event information on the workshop homepage.

Architectural Artifacts | Iron and Metals

Join the WTHP and members of Milwaukee’s historical preservation community for the Historic Preservation Institute’s fourth workshop this season.

This workshop will exam several creative ways to deal with historic iron structures. The intent is to dispel the many myths associated with the obsolescence of iron structures, either as buildings or as engineering feats, particularly in brutal freeze-thaw northern climates.

Presentation #1 will document the struggle to save Milwaukee’s unique 1861 iron-clad building and its associated technical challenges. The second will cover innovative programming and design solutions for reusing massive, rusting engineering structures. Presentation #3 will show the saving, scanning, recreating, and reusing of the zinc fountain statue from the 1893World’s Fair in Chicago.

Lecture details:

RESTORING ESTORING THE IRON BLOCK BUILDING IRON BLOCK BUILDING

Scott Hoppenworth - Bond Façade Services

REUSINGTHE MKE RIVER SWING BRIDGE MKE RIVER SWING BRIDGE

John Everitt - Bray Architects

1893 CHICAGO EXPOSITION CHERUBS

Kendall Breunig, Sunset Investors
Amanda Wagner, Davenport Industries

Architectural Artifacts | Strategies for Finding & Reusing

Join the WTHP and members of Milwaukee’s historical preservation community to meet special guests Mike Jackson and H. Russell Zimmerman.

Mike Jackson, FAIA
National Building Arts Center, St. Louis, MO

Mike Jackson, FAIA, is a preservation architect in Springfield IL, where he was the chief architect for the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency for more than 30 years. He is the founding director of the APT Building Technology Heritage Library and the current board president of the National Building Arts Center.

This presentation will bring together the complementary artifact collection of the NBAC and the archives of the BTHL as research sources for the historic built environment.

H. Russell Zimmerman
Milwaukee’s Architectural Historian

H. Russell "Russ" Zimmerman is an accomplished author, historian, architect, founder of the Milwaukee-based Zimmerman Design Consultants and the Chairman of the Wauwatosa Landmark Commission from 1976-1980. Zimmerman currently resides in Wauwatosa.

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Topics for Discussion:

National Building Arts Center
The National Building Arts Center (NBAC) holds the largest collection of built environment artifacts in the Unites States. The core of the collection comes from buildings in St. Louis but also includes artifacts from New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and other U.S. cities. This collection was assembled by Larry Giles over a 50-year period starting in 1973. The NBAC aims to be a leading lender of building artifacts from exhibition and research on the historic built environment. In 2023, the NBAC partnered with the Pulitzer Arts Foundation on a major exhibit - Urban Archaeology: Lost Buildings of St. Louis.

Apartment Building Technology Heritage Library
The Association for Preservation Technology (APT)’s mission is to advance appropriate traditional and new technologies to care for, protect, and promote the longevity of the built environment and to cultivate the exchange of knowledge throughout the international community. In 2010 APT launched the Building Technology Heritage Library (BTHL), an online archive of period architectural trade catalogs, builders’ guides, house plan books and related technical publications that are rarely found in traditional libraries. Since that time, the BTHL has grown to almost 15,000 publications from North America, Great Britain and Australia. These documents, as primary source materials, can assist in the preservation of the historic built environment and other research goals.

Jarob Ortiz comes home to Milwaukee document landmarks

Ansel Adams National Park Service Photographer, Jarob Ortiz Ortiz, was hosted by the Historic Preservation Institute of UW-Milwaukee’s School of Architecture & Urban Planning in November to photograph sites and landmarks.

As part of the visit, Jarob participated in a “meet and greet” reception on Wednesday, Nov. 15, where he presented his work at at the historic Pritzlaff Building in Milwaukee (315 N. Plankinton Ave.).

The support of Pritzlaff owner Kendall Breunig – who is passionate about Milwaukee history – and TechRender made the visit possible.

Ortiz visited his hometown of Milwaukee, WI in large part to document the Mitchell Park Conservatory domes for the Library of Congress and National Archives. He also documented other landmarks, too, including the Pritzlaff Building and the Pabst Mansion pavilion.

Ortiz is a 2013 graduate of the Milwaukee Area Technical College photography program and he graduated from Oak Creek High School in 2001.

Ortiz landed his gig at National Park Service’s Heritage Documentation Services – often called the “Ansel Adams Photographer” position because it mirrors, somewhat, the work that the famed lensman did for the Department of the Interior in the 1940s – in 2016, beating out about 4,000 other applicants.

Read more about Ortiz’s visit: "Ansel Adams photographer" Jarob Ortiz comes home to document landmarks - OnMilwaukee.com.

Preservation Post: Tillman Brothers Furniture Building (Leithold Music), La Crosse

Tillman Brothers Building looking northwest.  Circa 1911.  Courtesy of Murphy Library Special Collections, University of Wisconsin – La Crosse.

Frozen Music in the City of La Crosse!

What is now the Leithold’s Music building began its life in early 1890 as the Tillman Brothers Wholesale and Retail Furniture Store (est. 1859). Historic photos of this building show a wood storefront at ground level with a Queen Anne style transom in the center of the three bays.

The second-floor storefront featured an oriel window. Two cast iron columns extended from grade to the top of the second-floor windows. Windows on the third and fourth-floors are separated by a brick belt course. Fifth-floor features window openings defined by massive brick arches. Small arched attic windows, detailed brick corbeling, and a pressed tin sign capped the building. Later renovations removed the original storefront, cut down the sign board, and introduced a prism glass transom.

Leithold Music: Ownership and Modernization

In 1964, Leithold’s Music took ownership of the building and modernized the façade by covering the storefront transom with a large red sign, removed the second-floor windows and installed stucco panels, a new aluminum storefront replaced the bronze storefront, and the cast iron columns were clad with a yellow enamel metal panel system.

Leithold’s Music photo, courtesy of Marc Zettler, 2019

Leithold’s Music photo, courtesy of Marc Zettler, December 2021

Historic Restoration Work

This building was already contributing to the La Crosse Commercial Historic District and eligible for State and Federal Historic Tax Credits. An architecture and engineering study was completed in December 2019. Zettler Design Studio, LLC completed architectural drawings in August 2020. Construction started in early 2021 and is scheduled to wrap up this winter!

Façade restoration work included: a new aluminum storefront, new storefront lighting and vestibule on first floor, restoration of the historic prism glass transom, a new wood frame storefront on second floor, restoration of original windows on the third floor up to the attic; masonry restoration including tuckpointing, paint removal (to reveal the original brownstone), minor structural corrections; HVAC alterations to remove exhaust vents from window openings; rear window restoration on first through fifth floors and masonry restoration on the entire façade.

Preservation Post: Newburg Menswear Building, La Crosse WI

The past 133 years have brought a lot a change to the four buildings at 320-326 Pearl Street. Originally four separate structures, a series of purchases by the Newburg Menswear Company combined the buildings into the single structure that we see today. 

The buildings were originally known as the following: 

• 326 Pearl Street, historically the Gund Building, c. 1888 by Gund Brewing

• 324 Pearl Street, historically the Newburg Menswear Building, c. 1888 as residence and commercial space for Peter Newburg Company

• 322 Pearl Street, historically the Miller & Horne Building, c. 1889

• 320 Pearl Street, historically the Trane Building, c. 1889 by James A. Trane & Company. This was the beginnings of what would become The Trane Company, a global leader and innovator in Heating, Venting and Air Conditioning.

View looking south at Gund Building, 326 Pearl Street.  Circa 1892.  Courtesy of Murphy Library Special Collections, University of Wisconsin – La Crosse.

View looking south at Trane Buildings 320 Pearl Street.  Circa 1892.  Courtesy of Murphy Library Special Collections, University of Wisconsin – La Crosse.

View looking southwest at 324 Pearl Street.  Circa 1950s.  Courtesy of La Crosse Public Library Archives – La Crosse.

Expansion: The Gund Building

Historic photos of these four buildings show first floor wood storefronts with cast iron columns dividing the bays and recessed door alcoves. Each second floor is composed of brick broken up by double-hung windows capped by arched headers with limestone keystones and anchored by a lug stone sill. Each building a variation on the same theme. 

Circa 1896 Peter Newburg purchased the adjacent Gund Building and expanded his clothing store.  The brick party wall was removed on first floor and was replaced with a row of cast iron columns.  Sometime prior to 1921, the front of the two buildings was removed and replaced with a white terra cotta façade with what was probably a bronze storefront.  The building was again remodeled circa 1937 when the adjacent Miller and Horne Building was acquired at 322 Pearl Street.  A new Carrara Glass Storefront was installed over all three bays of the building to unify the store’s appearance.

View of 320-328 Pearl Street looking south.  Circa 1980s.  Courtesy of Murphy Library Special Collections, University of Wisconsin – La Crosse.

Expansion: The Trane Building

The final expansion occurred circa 1973 when the Newburg Menswear Company purchased the former Trane Building at 320 Pearl Street. With this purchase, the entire front façade was ‘modernized’.  A black metal slip cover was installed over the second floor, pre-cast concrete panels covered the storefront transoms and a new aluminum storefront with brown tiles was installed for the first floor storefront. 

The main entrance was moved to the center of the renovated façade.  The Newburg Menswear stayed in this location until 1986 when it closed its doors for good after 100 years in business.  After a couple years of vacancy, the building was used as a beauty school, but the school was gone by 2010 leaving most of the building vacant. Sometime around 2010 the metal slip cover was removed, revealing the once grand facades of the building.

320-328 Pearl St, photo courtesy of Marc Zettler, 2017

Historic Restoration work

A questionnaire was submitted to the WI Historical Society in early 2019 – the result was that the building’s historic status was changed to contributing in the La Crosse Commercial Historic District. Once approved, the building became eligible for State and Federal Historic Tax Credits. Architectural drawings were completed by Zettler Design Studio, LLC in late summer of 2019, construction commenced in late fall of 2019. 

Work Included

Front façade restoration of all 4 bays of the building, creation of 4 luxury apartments on second floor, roof terrace (for residents), rehabilitation of back and side facades, and “white box” preparation for a first floor commercial tenant.

Construction for Phase 1 - focusing on the exterior and new second floor apartments - was completed in November 2021! Phase 2 will be the build-out for a commercial tenant on first floor.

For more information, please reach out to Marc Zettler, of Zettler Design Studio. Marc served as Preservation Architect for the project.

The Orphan Bridge that Cobban Adopted: How It Was Lost

The year is 1912, the Titanic had sunk and some visionaries changed the Chippewa Valley forever. Logs were no longer flowing down rivers to the sawmills with the end of the Wisconsin logging industry. When the power company realized more electricity was needed, they decided to build an additional dam which would create Lake Wissota.

Moving the Orphan Cobban Bridge

This water wonderland, combined with Yellowstone Trail improvements which also began in 1912, brought tourists (and their money) in new horseless carriages to North Central Wisconsin. All great news for nearby Cobban except a new, nearly-500-feet-long pin-connected overhead truss bridge had just been placed over the Chippewa River. The bridge, deem too short for its new location, was scheduled for demolition.

But there was hope!

The community of Cobban realized a free bridge could replace their ferry over the same Chippewa River. During the winter, farmers disassembled the giant erector set of the truss bridge and moved each member 17 miles north, one-by-one via horse and sleigh. The structure was reassembled on both shores and pulled into position by a horse and cable across the river the following winter. The Cobban Bridge is now the last of this type still standing in Wisconsin.

Rehabilitation and Relocation

Over time road salt deteriorated components of the Cobban Bridge significantly. In 1996, it was closed and underwent major rehabilitation. In 2017 it was again closed to all traffic, vehicles and pedestrians. After the 2016 general election, information flowed down to the states regarding infrastructure improvements, the state adopted a new policy known as “Replace-In-Kind” in 2017.

While the total spending on bridge projects increased, this policy set spending limits on each, which channeled a way to maximize the number of bridges to be replaced. This same year, the Chippewa County Board authorized the replacement of the Cobban Bridge. The shortest and cheapest distance across the Chippewa River is where this historic bridge stands today.

Historic Registration Considerations

The Cobban Bridge is eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, but because it is not currently listed, the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), Section 106 process was invoked. Consultation meetings were intended to solicit public mitigation ideas from stakeholders and the public in general. At the very first meeting, the preservation consultant suggested two commonly used mitigations:

1. Sending high quality photographs to the Library of Congress

2. Expanding the historical marker

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) was in attendance and indicated that there was precedence for allocating demolition funds to relocation. The Cobban Bridge Preservation, Inc (CBPI) concluded that the estimated demolition engineering cost would be sufficient for the project with reimbursement occurring after contractor bids validated the estimates.

By this time, CBPI had been formed with five team members: (1) the owner of a civil drafting and engineering firm , (2) the owner of a metal fabrication and welding firm, (3) a retired WisDOT bridge inspector, ((4) a retired educator as secretary and treasurer, and (5) the history-concerned founder/president.

At this first consultation meeting, we suggested relocating one span across the adjacent highway onto donated farmland to become a roadside park, as shown below.

Suggested re-location: Roadside park from donated farmland, along the adjacent highway

Relocation Procedures

Following this first meeting, dozens of bridge repurposing sites were visited in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois. CBPI further concluded the same relocation procedures from a hundred years ago could be used again today and research and experimentation ensued (video above).

Railroad track would replace multiple wood cribbing columns on the ice. And across the adjacent highway, a tow truck would replace a horse. A house moving company would move the span 1/8 mile south to its ultimate destination on the donated property. An engineering firm was engaged to evaluate and it was determined the process was technically feasible given additional strengthening.

Simultaneously, WisDOT and SHPO were preparing the Memorandum of Understanding. The final mitigations approved were only the two original ones provided by the consultant in the beginning plus making the bridge available for ownership transfer with conditions. No other stakeholders were contacted to pursue mitigation ideas.

 Diverted Flow: Running into Challenges

The ownership transfer solicitation announcement contained a new long list of insurmountable requirements. CBPI chose to propose their relocation based on the requirements as publicized from the beginning. WisDOT ultimately decided that CBPI was not qualified, did not have the expertise or experience nor sufficient independent funding. The reimbursement had changed from the new bridge’s contract award time to after its completion. The proposal was denied. WisDOT engineers concluded that the only viable relocation process was to “pick” the spans using massive cranes on land and river barges.

 In retrospect, two tragic strategic errors were made. First, there was a lack of communications among CBPI and various agencies. All other repurposed bridge projects were either a public or  public/private partnership, where there were formal arm’s-length communications among the agencies. In fact, it was a competitive proposal process that prevented CBPI from learning that a township to the north had expressed an interest in the other span.

The second strategic error was not involving media or press from the very beginning. The intention was to maintain a low profile and good relationships. In hindsight however, both decisions contributed to the ultimate project failure.

 Digitally Preserving the Bridge

With the bridge heading for demolition, a jewel in the sand arose in the form of an article in the Merrill Foto News covering the imminent demotion of the T.B. Scott Mansion. The structure had been laser-scanned for documentation. CBPI contacted Matt Jarosz, the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Trust for Historic Preservation. His immediate and overwhelmingly-optimistic response resulted in three of his staff members spending an entire day at the Cobban Bridge, documenting the structure with tripods and drone scanners. This work generated three dimensional computer model for public viewing.

Even though the historic Cobban Bridge could not be physically preserved, the hi-res, detailed authentic rendition of what was lost due to a short-sighted vision of history can be viewed forever by generations to come.

Chamberlin Rock: a Painful Symbol of Racism Removed from UW-Madison Campus

On August 6, the University of Wisconsin—Madison removed the former Chamberlin Rock, a more than 2-billion-year old boulder that has sat at the crest of Observatory Hill on campus since 1925.

The Wisconsin Black Student Union, in partnership with Wunk Sheek, an Native American student organization, led the effort to remove the rock. The University Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Lori Reesor commented, “In the midst of demands for justice following George Floyd’s murder last summer, the students wanted change on campus and they worked hard to see this through. While the decision required compromise, I’m proud of the student leaders and the collaboration it took to get here.” The removal of the rock signifies the university’s dedication to advancing social and racial justice on campus.

A crane sit ready to lift the Chamberlin Rock (UW-Madison News)

Original Newspaper with A Racial Slur | (Wisconsin Historical Society. Wisconsin Local History & Biography Articles; "The Wisconsin State  Journal"; "Madison", "Wisconsin"; "October 9, 1925"

What is Chamberlin Rock?

The rock is a rare remaining example of pre-Cambrian era glacial erratics. According to the UW-Madison News, the rock was designated as a monument on campus in 1925 in honor of Thomas Thomas Chamberlin, a renowned geologist who served as the president of the University of Wisconsin from 1887 to 1892. The plaque on the rock honoring Chamberlin has been removed and a new one will be placed on Chamberlin Hall.

Why was the Chamberlin Rock Removed?

The rock was associated with an extremely offensive terminology. On October 9, 1925, the rock was referred to in the Wisconsin State journal headline by a derogatory nickname that included a racial slur. The term was commonly used to refer to any large, dark rock at the time. The phrase fell out of common usage by the 1950s and historians have not found evidence that the term was used by the university in any capacity.

Nevertheless, the term witnessed a historical past when the KKK were present in the Madison area, where “people of color were mocked in minstrel shows at campus facilities and in campus satiric periodicals,” according to the report from YourTango.

The rock sat within catalogued burial sites, which are protected under Wisconsin’s Burial Sites Preservation Law. The university worked closely with the Wisconsin Historical Society to assure minimal disturbance to the sacred burial sites nearby. The Society approved the removal permit on August 2 after seeking inputs from various stakeholders.

The Removal of Racist Legacies

Since June 2020, historic preservation and architectural organizations nationwide have joined a movement to call for the removal of Confederate monuments from public spaces, following the death of George Floyd. Many believe that Confederate monuments are proclamations of white supremacy, thus should be abhorrent to all Americans. Some wondered, Does removing a Confederate monument mean you’re erasing history? In support of the movement, the National Trust for Historic Preservation replied:

No. History is not that fragile. History is written in our buildings, landscapes, documents, objects, oral traditions, individual memories, and many other places, as well as in monuments in public spaces. To the contrary, left standing without appropriate context, these monuments promote a false and damaging narrative. When removed, these monuments can provide an even deeper understanding of history in other venues, such as museums, that can offer fuller and more inclusive context around the people, events, and ideologies that led to the monuments’ creation, and their relationship to present-day issues.

The Robert E. Lee Statue on Monument Avenue in Richmond has become a focal point of protests against racial injustice | (John McDonnell/The Washington Post, June 10, 2020)

Following the nationwide reckoning of racial justice and equity, some higher education institutions also took actions to cut ties with their racist legacies, such as reconsidering and removing the names of campus buildings and monuments that memorialized white supremacists. For example, the University of Virginia’s statue of Revolutionary War figure Roger Clark was removed from its campus. The University of California—Berkeley removed the names of two buildings, LeConte Hall and Barrows Hall, both are affiliated with figures who held deep racist views.

UW-Madison’s removal of the Chamberlin Rock is a part of this nation-wide movement to remove Confederate monuments and to build anti-racist campus among higher education institutions.

Join us! Saving Wisconsin’s Historic Theatres: A Taliesin Workshop

Do you own an historic theatre in Wisconsin? Are you a member of a community development team? Or a citizen committed to preserving local heritage? We have the workshop for you!

We’re holding an exciting two-day workshop at Taliesin, September 17-18. Already sold? You can register here or via the button below. For the unconvinced, please keep reading!

Saving Wisconsin’s Historic Theatres

During the September workshop, people from Wisconsin and beyond will gather to discuss the challenges and successes facing the state’s historic theatres. Created by the Wisconsin Trust for Historic Preservation and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, the workshop features a rich and varied array of preservation topics, with a focus on historic theatres. Workshop attendees will also have the opportunity to network and tour the Taliesin grounds (for free!) with a special look at ongoing restoration.

Taliesin Hillside

Al Ringling Theater

Mabel Tainter Theater

Workshop Features

• Stories from the front: struggles and success of 8 Wisconsin theatres

• Deep dive on historic restoration projects and turning these structures into an economic engine

• How to execute a revitalization plan for your local theater or Main Street project

• Preservation news from around the country

• How to research, document, and protect a historic building (Hint: Lasers!)

• Ideas for funding preservation projects

• ·Methods for restoring historic art glass, wall paintings, marquees, and lighting

• Choosing the right designers and contractors

• Q & A discussion with experts

Thank you to our supporting partners.
Click for more information on the workshop.

The Bond Company LLC

Formerly Spray-O-Bond

TechRender LLC

Laser Scanning and Documentation

ECS Midwest LLC

Geotechnical and environmental Consulting

Heritage Consulting Group

Historic building consulting and development

Taliesin Wisconsin

Preservation at Taliesin