MILWAUKEE LAKEFRONT Landing
MILWAUKEE, WI
James Corner Field Operations and LA DALLMAN
The word “Milwaukee” aptly derives from Native American languages meaning “gathering place by the water.” Originally, the shores of Lake Michigan were sculpted by glaciers that created bluffs and topographical shorelines, facilitating original settlement, movement and gathering by the water. Our design proposal for Milwaukee’s new gateway to the water – its new “Lakefront Landing” – is to create an iconic landform that supports multiple connections, journeys, and experiences to the Lake. This hill form, reminiscent of earlier bluffs, provides elevated views and overlooks, and shapes lower level plaza and gathering spaces. Milwaukee’s Lakefront Landing connects, re-orients and transforms an existing leftover space into a highly visible, connected, and memorable place worthy of its namesake as “a gathering place by the water.”
Lakefront Landing is a sculpted three-dimensional crossroads, gateway, and connector. It creates a strong East-West relationship from the City to the Lake. It becomes a North-South connector linking O’Donnell Park, the Milwaukee Art Museum, Dan Kiley gardens and War Memorial to the future Urban Park, Summerfest, and Henry Maier Festival Park. It is an important missing link in the existing bike and recreational trail network and lakefront park system. It promotes environmental sustainability, water reuse, and best stormwater management practices to enhance Milwaukee’s brand as “America’s Fresh Water Capital.” Two iconic landform bluffs provide the best views of the Lake to the Northeast and Southeast with a distinct promontory and series of seating steps facing the water, where locals and tourists can come together to experience views as well as to participate in events and the everyday experience of biking, running, gathering and playing on the lakefront. A dramatic new “Pedestrian Bridge” is functionally and physically integrated with the new landscape, providing a unique sense of continuity, wayfinding, accessibility, and movement. A new “Lake Pavilion” tucked under the western bluff, offers a prominent and memorable beacon at the corner of Clybourn Street and Lincoln Memorial Drive. This “Flex” Pavilion holds and activates the corner and provides opportunities for civic, cultural, educational, recreational and food and beverage programming. A new interactive water feature is designed to create a visual link on axis with the Dan Kiley gardens to the North. The design is flexible, phase-able and adaptable.
Milwaukee’s Lakefront Landing is a dramatic and iconic landform, connecting the various levels of the city to the Lake, adjacent parklands, and cultural facilities, while at the same time shaping dramatic journeys, vistas, spaces and events. It is Milwaukee’s new gathering space by the water.