PHOTOS: Panels for future Milwaukee Public Museum cast in Germantown facility

While Mortenson works to deliver a world class natural history museum in Milwaukee, many of the components are locally made.

Germantown-based Stonecast Products Inc. will make 670 precast panels for the exterior of the future Milwaukee Public Museum, a $240 million project expected to be completed in early 2027. Crews have started work on the fourth floor of the public-private project, located at Sixth Street and McKinley Avenue.

When the vertical structure is finally finished, crews will attach 335 wall panels and 335 trim pieces to the outside. Each panel is unique and is made inside a precast facility, which has spaces for flat pieces and CNC machine-cut formwork for ridged trim pieces. Stonecast crews poured and smoothed concrete over formwork, which will be stored and trucked to the construction site at a later date.

Chris Zajac, director of production and engineering for Stonecast, said around 30% of the panels have already been created.

The museum exterior architecture pulled inspiration from the rocky structures in Mill Bluff State Park in Camp Douglas, Wisconsin, said Katie Sanders, the chief planning officer for Milwaukee Public Museum.