The Promise of Milwaukee’s Lakefront

THE PROMISE OF Milwaukee’s Lakefront EIGHT WAYS TO MAKE THIS INCOMPARABLE PUBLIC SPACE EVEN BETTER

BY VIRGINIA SMALL

Milwaukee’s lakefront is widely considered our foremost public amenity. It may even rank as the city’s “best idea.” Miles of contiguous stretches of public land were created by filling in lakebed, which Wisconsin’s constitutional “Public Trust Doctrine” mandates can be used solely for public purposes. That effort dates back to the 1890s, when the city’s nascent Park Commission instituted far-thinking policies to guarantee public access along Lake Michigan. Socialist leaders later expanded upon that vision and dramatically increased parkland by filling lakebeds. The 22-acre Lakeshore State Park, completed in 2007 atop debris from Milwaukee’s Deep Tunnel sewer expansion, culminated this century-long public enterprise. A popular oasis in all weather, Lakeshore State Park also links county and state recreational trails.

The expanse known as Milwaukee’s “cultural lakefront,” located directly east of Downtown, includes Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin, Henry W. Maier Festival Park (Summerfest’s grounds), Lakeshore State Park, Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) and Museum Center Park (formerly O’Donnell Park), the War Memorial Center and historic Milwaukee Pierhead Light. Various parcels of this public land are owned by the City of Milwaukee, Port of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County. Additionally, most of this land is now stewarded by four nonprofit leaseholders: Discovery World, MAM, Milwaukee War Memorial, Inc., and Milwaukee World Festival, Inc. Lakeshore State Park, the main exception, is managed by Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources and supported by an active friends group.

This baked-in complexity sometimes resulted in piecemeal planning and development. Fortunately, signs at several walkway entrances now affirm public accessibility. Nonetheless, unclear cues may confuse visitors or deter use. And simply getting to the lakefront from Downtown can be challenging, especially for pedestrians during colder months when many access points remain closed. In 2015, the City of Milwaukee enlisted design concepts for a section of the cultural lakefront envisioned as a gateway plaza. However, funding has not been raised for any proposed projects, according to Jeff Fleming, spokesperson for the Department of City Development.

For this story, visitors and professionals offered suggestions for unifying and clarifying Milwaukee’s cultural lakefront and to address new realities and opportunities. Environmental, inclusive and anti-racist perspectives, as well as people-centered design, were cited as ways to help fulfill the immense potential of this common ground.

A PLACE OF BELONGING FOR EVERYONE.

Many people head to the cultural lakefront as dawn chasers, walkers, runners, cyclists, photographers, anglers, bird watchers, rollerbladers, skateboarders, museum visitors, restaurant patrons and festival attendees. Nonetheless, not everyone feels fully welcomed, said Robert S. Smith, the Harry G. John Professor of History at Marquette University. Smith said Milwaukee can become a truly dynamic “cosmopolitan city” by encouraging the full expression of diverse people, including within major public spaces. “Catering mostly to certain types of people, especially those with greater wealth and privilege, does not make a city feel cool and lively,” he said.

RECOGNIZE THE LAKEFRONT’S BROAD APPEAL.

“It feels more intimate than Chicago’s lakefront,” said Smith. When he moved here 10 years ago, easy proximity to Lake Michigan was a major draw. “Having previously visited Milwaukee, I appreciated how beautiful and special it is. It’s one of the healthiest places in Milwaukee.” Smith, who also directs Marquette’s Center for Urban Research, Teaching and Outreach (CURTO), said, “We have to want to make it more inclusive. We need to acknowledge that everyone wants to be near this beautiful freshwater lake, including black and brown people and those of Southeast Asian descent.” He said that regardless of what we do or don’t do, people from all backgrounds will increasingly congregate at the lakefront. Smith, who is African American, said, “It would be useful to have a healthy public conversation about how all people of Milwaukee want to use it. We will be better off if we maximize the potential for social and cultural exchange in our most valuable public spaces.”

CREATE COMFORTABLE SPACES FOR EVERYONE.

That includes unified wayfinding; having inviting, flexible and fully accessible spaces; varied options for seating in both sun and shade; and multiple reasons to spend time in spaces, rather than for single or restricted uses. “It’s absolutely crucial to meaningfully involve the community in improving amenities and equitably expanding access,” said landscape architect Ernie Wong, founding principal of Chicago’s site design group, ltd. Wong is consulting on several public landscapes in Milwaukee and commits only to projects that will include robust community engagement. “Spaces rarely succeed in serving public functions without meaningful and transparent community input,” said Wong. “Simply being public or publicly accessible does not guarantee that spaces provide real value to the public.”

VIEW THE CULTURAL LAKEFRONT AS A WHOLE.

Stephen McCarthy sees potential to create a flowing and seamless experience for visitors by integrating and accentuating existing landscape features and design elements. The landscape architect for the Metropolitan Milwaukee Sewerage District’s innovative multi-county Greenseams program, McCarthy pointed out disparate elements during a walk, which could be remedied. “A design program for the entire lakefront could help define priorities and fix problematic areas,” such as a highly visible dead zone just northeast of the War Memorial, along Lincoln Memorial Drive. The sidewalk abruptly ends and becomes a neglected area and dirt path. Also, ecologically restoring Veterans Park’s lagoon could make it healthier and more visually appealing, said McCarthy. “It could bookend the cultural lakefront, echoing native plantings in Lakeshore State Park and the nearby War Memorial parking lot, which was recently redesigned to collect storm water.”

EQUITABLY ADDRESS TRANSPORTATION.

Metro Milwaukee’s car-centered culture decreases the potential for inclusive access to the cultural lakefront. Fully multimodal mass transit could help remedy this inequity. Maria Elena Torney Scott, a former Milwaukee Public Schools bilingual-education teacher, said that some of her students never had been to the lakefront before a field trip to the Art Museum. “Imagine living so close to this jewel of a resource and not knowing all of its wonders,” she said.

A transportation concourse is planned within the Couture, a heavily subsidized skyscraper with luxury units and “high-end retail” to be built across from the cultural lakefront. Current plans call for incorporating stops for “The Hop” streetcar and bus rapid transit (BRT). Standard Milwaukee County buses, the area’s primary form of mass transportation, do not directly access the lakefront except during Summerfest and other major festivals.

KEEP KNITTING TOGETHER ASSETS AND EXPERIENCES.

The Dan Kiley-designed lakewalk, east of MAM, spurred the linking of Milwaukee County’s Oak Leaf Trail and state-managed Hank Aaron Trail. Lakeshore State Park’s informative interpretation of landscape features and history could be echoed in other lakefront areas.

The just-launched “Light the Hoan Bridge” effort is drawing more people to Lakeshore State Park’s southern entrance off Erie Street. Opening Summerfest’s lakewalk in the off-season for pedestrians and bicyclists has increased connectivity with the Historic Third Ward. A new children’s play area in Summerfest’s grounds will add a year-round family friendly amenity to the cultural lakefront.

Another alluring feature is Ned Kahn’s Wind Leaves, a site-specific installation north of Discovery World. Diane Buck, who co-authored a book about Milwaukee’s public sculptures, considers Wind Leaves one of the city’s most remarkable creations. “It’s one of the only major pieces that is interactive,” she said. “It changes with the light, weather and seasons. Visitors can adjust the shimmering ‘leaves,’ and make sounds using mallets attached to benches.”

INCLUSIVELY TELL THE LAKEFRONT’S STORY.

“When we call this space our cultural lakefront, whose culture are we talking about? Who decides and under what circumstances?” asked Torney Scott, a writer and poet born in Mexico, adopted at age 10 and raised in Madison by parents who did not speak Spanish then, nor did she speak English.

“It’s good that we are beginning to think about broader expanses of time and to represent different voices,” said Margaret Noodin, director of the Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education at UW-Milwaukee. “We can build upon efforts to acknowledge Milwaukee’s Indigenous history and the contemporary presence of members of Tribal Nations,” said Noodin, who is also a nationally recognized poet. “We Are Water” celebrations hosted by the Milwaukee Water Commons and the now-suspended Indian Summer Festival of tribal culture “have been important temporary cultural expressions, but there is little that is permanent,” she deplored. “There are many complex layers of history and a lot of diversity represented here in Milwaukee. There are opportunities to tell the long and rich history of Indigenous peoples, dating back 12,000 years, and to permanently express more recent stories,” said Noodin.

CONTINUE ACCENTUATING THE LAKE.

“We have come together to identify a community goal of building coastal resilience,” said Noodin. “We can also think about what that means in terms of how people come together, how they can be engaged in policy making.” Lake Michigan itself is the premier attraction, said McCarthy. “Any development, or even significant tweaks, must preserve the lake’s health as well as lake views,” said McCarthy. One frequent visitor said we should be wary of “hanging too many ornaments on the tree” by overbuilding or overwhelming the cultural lakefront. Viewing the ever-changing lake from afar is among the ways people appreciate it.

Virginia Small is a veteran journalist and communications professional. The Milwaukee Press Club recently awarded her a silver medal for a story published in the Shepherd Express.