Milwaukee Public Museum picks contractors to build, design new project

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The Milwaukee Public Museum announced Thursday that it has chosen various contractors, including Mortenson Construction, to design and build a new home that it will share with the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum in downtown Milwaukee.

A group of three design firms and two general contractors are part of a team charged with designing and building that will have a 230,000-square-foot space for the public museum and 30,000 square feet of space for the children’s museum.  Mortenson Construction will serve as the project’s general contractor and work with Butler-based ALLCON, a women- and minority-owned general contractor, in a “mentor-protégé relationship.”

Milwaukee-based Kahler Slater will work with New York-based Ennead Architects to design the building. And Thinc Design, also of New York, will design exhibits for the new museum.

“As designing and building a new museum will have national and global significance and will be a point of pride for Wisconsinites for generations to come, we searched for the best talent both locally and globally,” said Ellen Censky, president and CEO of the Milwaukee Public Museum. “We are thrilled with the group we’ve assembled and feel they will capture the interconnection of nature and culture through time and space using design as part of this exciting process.”

The public museum and children’s museum will share a 2.5-acre site at the northeast corner of West McKinley Avenue and North 6th Street on the west end of downtown Milwaukee. The public museum will move from 800 W. Wells Street and the children’s museum will leave its site at 929 E. Wisconsin Ave.

The public museum expects to close on the sale in February and construction on the project is expected to get underway in 2022 and wrap up in 2025.

“We are proud to be part of the team that brings this new immersive adventure to our state and continues MPM’s legacy as one of the nation’s premier natural history museums,” said Scott Heberlein, vice president and general manager of Mortenson, in a statement.  “We are energized by building the landscape of Milwaukee and enhancing the cultural and educational offerings to our community, families, and future generations.”

Museum officials said the companies that were chosen for the project were picked following an international search that yielded dozens of applications.

Kahler Slater and Ennead are charged with designing the public museum itself, along with a space to house the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum. Thinc Design, meanwhile, will design technology-centered exhibits in the public museum.

Once construction begins, museum officials say they plan to enlist a “locally focused” and diverse team of contractors and subcontractors.

A feature of that commitment is a partnership with Mortenson and ALLCON, a hispanic- and women-owned company founded in 2009. The arrangement aims to build ALLCON’s capabilities, according to a news release.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for ALLCON to empower ourselves by evolving our knowledge and abilities through this collaborative effort with Mortenson,” Ana Lopez, president of ALLCON, said in a statement. “We are part of a tough but rewarding industry.  Partnerships such as this not only allow economic opportunities for small and emerging minority businesses, but also bring rich and diverse perspectives and experiences to each project.” Follow @TDR_WLJDan