Greater Milwaukee under development

A sampling of construction projects in greater Milwaukee:

Project: Eckstein Hall

Marquette University’s Eckstein Hall, scheduled for completion in July, will be the home of the university’s Law School. Features include a reading room (inset), as well as two courtrooms, classrooms, faculty office suites, library space, a conference center and a café. (Photo by Corey Hengen)

Owner: Marquette University, Milwaukee
Lead contractor: Opus Corp., Minneapolis
Lead architect/engineer: Shepley Bullfinch Richardson & Abbott Inc., Boston, in partnership with Opus Architects & Engineers, Minneapolis
Completion date: July 2010
Cost: $85 million
Location: Milwaukee
Project challenge: “It’s a signature building on a signature site,” said Marquette University Architect Tom Ganey. “The challenge is to do an excellent job and live up to the expectations.”

Significance to greater Milwaukee: “It’s a landmark building, and for the first time it presents Marquette University to the southeast in a dynamic way,” Ganey said. “We’re still six months away from completion, and we’re already impressed by the recognition we’ve received.”

Point of interest: The building is organized around a four-story forum with two levels of parking below. To integrate the new building with the old law school’s library, the library had to be shifted into the new design. “We’ve taken down the borders,” Ganey said.

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Project: The BreweryOwner: Brewery Project LLC, Milwaukee

Lead contractor: KM Development, Milwaukee

Lead architect/engineer: KM Development
Completion date: unavailable
Cost: $70 million to date
Location: Milwaukee
Project challenge: “The enormity of it,” said Dan McCarthy, vice president of Brewery Project LLC. “Creating a neighborhood vision and having the community buy into the transformation of a manufacturing plant into this neighborhood was incredible.”

Significance to greater Milwaukee: “The preservation of a really important piece of the city’s history,” McCarthy said, “as well as how to successfully structure a public-private partnership. I mean, from the city to the county to (Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District) to the state, every level of government got involved with this.”

Point of interest: Developers would be hard-pressed to find other projects that connect so many people, McCarthy said. “Since the brewery dates back to 1844, it’s touched tens of thousands of Milwaukee families. Having the chance to breathe new life into it is a real treat for me.”

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Project: Zoo Interchange bridge repairs

Equipment and material sit in the area near southbound U.S. 45 (left) and eastbound Interstate 94. (Photo by John Krejci)

Owner: Wisconsin Department of Transportation
Lead contractor: Milwaukee Constructors LLC
Lead architects/engineers: Kapur & Associates Inc., Milwaukee; CH2M Hill, Englewood, Colo.; HNTB Corp., Milwaukee
Completion date: June
Cost: $15.3 million
Location: Milwaukee County
Project challenge: According to WisDOT spokeswoman Emlynn Grisar, the project’s main challenge is to keep traffic delays and other construction side effects to a minimum while maintaining an aggressive schedule.

Significance to greater Milwaukee: It’s an economic lifeline to the area, Grisar said, and maintaining traffic flow on the interchange is vital to the region.

Point of interest: The Zoo Interchange is the busiest interchange in Wisconsin, with about 350,000 vehicles traveling through it daily.

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Project: Marquette University College of Engineering Discovery Learning Complex

Marquette University is scheduled to break ground next month on its College of Engineering Discovery Learning Complex, shown in the rendering. (Rendering courtesy of Marquette University)

Owner: Marquette University
Lead contractor: Opus Corp., Minneapolis
Lead architect/engineer: Opus Architects & Engineers, Minneapolis
Completion date: August 2011
Cost: $35 million for first phase
Location: Milwaukee
Project challenge: “To create a dynamic engineering lab on an urban site,” Marquette University Architect Tom Ganey said. In addition to working with a relatively small plot, designers also face the challenge of setting the project up to be completed in multiple phases.

Significance to greater Milwaukee: The site, at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and 16th Street, is a key intersection for the city, Ganey said. “It opens the doors of engineering education to the city,” he said.

Point of interest: Marquette breaks ground on the project in March, and Ganey said the project’s first phase will feature two new labs. One will require an overhead crane in the building. “It’s going to be just like big manufacturing buildings,” he said. “A lot of them have overhead cranes to work with.”

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Project: Empowerment Village

American Demolition Inc., Milwaukee, wraps up demolition of the south wing of the Empowerment Village structure Jan. 14. A new addition will be built at the same time as the original 1901 building is renovated. (Photo by David La Haye)

Owner: Empowerment Village National LLC, Milwaukee
Lead contractor: Reichl Construction Inc., Franklin
Lead architect/engineer: Korb Tredo Architects Inc., Milwaukee
Completion date: November
Cost: $8.2 million
Location: Milwaukee
Project challenge: The challenge is coordination of old and new construction, said Carol Keen, asset manager for Milwaukee-based Cardinal Capital Management Inc.

“The original building was done in 1901, and there was an addition built in 1940,” she said. “We’re taking down the addition and building a new one while at the same time renovating the original 1901 building.”

Significance to greater Milwaukee: Keen said the project fits well with the Zilber Neighborhood Initiate, a program targeting reinvestment in low-income areas.

Point of interest: The project adds new entrances to the building, which previously could only be accessed by ascending eight steep steps in the front, Keen said. The building will now have access on the side and in the rear.

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Project: Johnston Center Residences

Construction proceeds at the Johnston Center Residences project. (Photo by David La Haye)

Owner: Mercy Housing Lakefront, Chicago
Lead contractor: Beyer Construction, New Berlin
Lead architect/engineer: Korb Tredo Architects Inc., Milwaukee
Completion date: December
Cost: not available
Location: South Milwaukee
Project challenge: “The lasagna layers of financing,” said Lisa Kuklinski, director of new markets and public affairs for Mercy Housing Lakefront. The project is tagged as permanent supportive housing, intended to serve the homeless and people with special needs in the Milwaukee area. To get the project moving, Mercy Housing had to secure the capital financing to cover construction, operations financing from government subsidies and money for services.

Significance to Greater Milwaukee: “The project will contribute to ending homelessness in Milwaukee,” Kuklinski said.

Point of interest: “When the doors open to this project, about 10 percent of the chronically homeless in Milwaukee will have a home,” Kuklinski said.

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Project: U.S. Bank parking structure

Workers position a precast floor section Feb. 2 during construction of the U.S. Bank parking structure. (Photo by Charles Auer)

Owner: U.S. Bank, Milwaukee
Lead contractor: KBS Construction Inc., Madison
Lead architect/engineer: Kahler Slater Architects Inc., Milwaukee
Completion date: June
Cost: $19 million
Location: Milwaukee
Project challenge: The approval process was a challenge. “The city requires retail on the first floor on that site,” said U.S. Bank Vice President Joseph Ulrich. “We came to an agreement with (the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design) to let us put artwork in the first-floor windows as a compromise. The city agreed on the basis that they could require a conversion in the future.”

Significance to Greater Milwaukee: The structure, which replaces a parking garage on site, offers the same number of spots — 970 — on only half the site’s footprint. “It allows future development downtown,” Ulrich said.

Point of interest: Although the first floor will offer heated parking now, Ulrich said, it was designed so that if the order comes through to convert the space into retail, that adjustment can be made.

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Project: Oak Creek Power Plant expansion

Construction continues on the second unit of the We Energies Oak Creek Power Plant expansion project. (Photo courtesy of We Energies)

Owners: Wisconsin Energy Corp., WPPI Energy Inc. and Madison Gas & Electric Co.
Lead contractor: Bechtel Corp., San Francisco
Lead architect/engineer: Bechtel Corp.
Completion date: November for Unit 2
Cost: $2.2 billion for Unit 1and Unit 2
Location: Oak Creek
Project challenge: The weather, particularly the winter of 2007-08, has been a challenge. “We got record snowfalls,” said We Energies spokesman Brian Manthey. “A lot of the plant was still exposed at that time, and there was a lot of construction time lost just to clear out snow from the project.”

Significance to greater Milwaukee: The plant will reduce the area’s reliance on more expensive, imported energy, Manthey said. It also includes the most advanced technology available for capturing sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and fine particulate emissions.

Point of interest: The project is the largest in state history. By the numbers, Manthey said, the project consists of 28,000 tons of steel, 150,000 cubic yards of concrete and enough electric cable to extend 1,500 miles — or the distance between Milwaukee and Miami.

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