Eppstein Uhen and Atlanta firm will design $300M Wisconsin Center expansion

A rendering showing preliminary plans for the expansion of the Wisconsin Center events venue in downtown Milwaukee. The Wisconsin Center District Board announced on Thursday it had picked Eppstein Uhen and an Atlanta firm to oversee the design of the project. (Rendering courtesy of Populous)

Eppstein Uhen Architects will join forces with a firm from Atlanta to design a planned $300 million expansion of downtown Milwaukee’s Wisconsin Center.

During a meeting on Thursday, the Wisconsin Center District Board announced it had picked Eppstein Uhen and a company named TVSdesign to draw up plans for a long-proposed expansion and overhaul of the event space. In early November, the board put out a call to 17 local and national architecture firms for design plans. It eventually received seven submissions from 14 companies, which had formed partnerships for the project.

The project is meant both to expand the Wisconsin Center into a connected parking lot at the corner West Kilbourn Avenue and Vel R. Phillips Avenue and bring the space up to date. The center was built in two phases ending in 2000.

“Today’s announcement is a critical milestone in this exciting and ambitious process,” said Marty Brooks, WCD President and CEO, in a statement. “The expanded Wisconsin Center will be a facility providing superb, captivating, and buzz-worthy experiences to all who enter. We will create jobs, generate economic impact, and capitalize on the momentum that Milwaukee is only starting to feel.”

Plans to nearly double the size of the downtown convention center have been advancing quickly this year. The state’s biennial budget contains a provision tacking $100 million onto the Legislature’s pledge to back any new debt issued by the Wisconsin Center District. That addition means the state is now committed to support as much as $300 million worth of borrowing for improvements to the venue.

In a news release, WCD officials touted Eppstein Uhen’s experience in designing well-known projects in Milwaukee such as the Fiserv Forum, Miller Park and others. The firm will work on the Wisconsin Center project with TVSdesign, which has its headquarters in Atlanta and offices in Los Angeles and Shanghai. The company recently worked on expansions of the Las Vegas Convention Center and McCormick Place in Chicago, the largest convention center in North America.

After choosing a designer, the Center District will next select a construction manager for the project. The board put out an invitation to bid in late November and plans to pick a firm at its next meeting on Jan. 24. Construction could begin in the first quarter of 2021.

“On behalf of EUA and tvsdesign, we are incredibly proud to have been selected,” said Rich Tennessen, president of EUA, in a statement. “The combined expertise of our EUA staff with the world-class convention center team at tvsdesign is ready to design a convention center that draws people from around the world to experience our phenomenal city.”