Eppstein Uhen Architects

The redevelopment of the Boston Store buildings represents one of the more significant mixed-use projects in the Westown neighborhood downtown. It has preserved the presence of a major retailer, preserved nearly 950 jobs, provided new loft style apartments with great views of the heart of Milwaukee and given new life to one of the prominent retail buildings in downtown Milwaukee.

While once a vital project that challenged the supremacy of the suburban shopping malls, the Grand Avenue had fallen on hard times by the mid-1990s. Retailers like Marshall Fields and others closed, leaving the Grand Avenue with only one anchor, the Boston Store. Boston Store’s owners Carson Pirie Scott considered closing as well, and relocating its 750 corporate employees to Chicago. WISPARK and Wisconsin Energy Corporation responded to the challenge and worked closely with the City of Milwaukee and State of Wisconsin to craft a public/private partnership that would allow for a complete renovation of the building. Parent company Saks Inc. agreed to a long-term lease that would keep the Boston Store department store open and keep the 750 Carson Pirie Scott corporate jobs in Milwaukee.

WISPARK purchased the building and invested over $38 million in its renovation. Exterior work included opening up windows, cleaning and painting, and restoring missing architectural elements. Interior work consisted in preserving two floors of retail and three floors of office space while converting the upper four floors into residential space for 74 loft style apartments. Underground parking was developed in the building’s basement for the residential tenants.

The Boston Lofts Project is a testament to the creative collaboration between public and private entities. WISPARK LLC can be congratulated for its leadership role here in restoring a prominent downtown retail landmark and giving it a new lease on life.

Once the gracious mansion of the leader of the largest brewery in America, the Fred Pabst, Jr. residence has long been a visual landmark on Highland Boulevard. Pabst’s love of horses is reflected in the prominent coach house situated behind the mansion. One of the largest in Milwaukee, the coach house is built of sturdy cream brick and embellished with architectural details that complement the main house such as corner quoins, modillions, lintels with keystones and arched windows. The ground floor was used for stabling horses and storing carriages. The upper story housed the coachmen and household staff. Subsequent decades saw the house transformed from mansion to rooming house to offices. The coach house underwent conversion to a garage and dog kennel and was basically left to deteriorate.

Cream City Properties LLC purchased the property in 2001. Quorum Architects took up headquarters in the mansion while the coach house was renovated for the offices of Cream City Construction. In their adaptive reuse of the coach house, Cream City Construction preserved the exterior of the building while utilizing the remaining interior elements of the old coach house to guide the conversion. Paint was removed from the walls to reveal the cream colored brick. Blackened ceilings were cleaned of 100 years of accumulated dirt to reveal original tongue and groove, quarter-sawn oak boards. The original scored concrete floor was cleaned in the corridor area. The only two remaining iron bollards were retained and reused. The original porcelain basin used by carriage drivers to wash their boots was cleaned and installed in the new bathroom. An existing glass cabinet door was reworked into an interior window to allow for borrowed light from adjacent space. A door removed from the center hall was refinished and now serves as the top of a conference table.

New work was inspired by existing materials that were salvaged from the building. Three new panel doors were installed surrounded by original pine wallboards. Office dividers were created to resemble horse stalls with cross-buck bracing, chamfered posts and balustrades topped with ball finials. The semi-open floor plan makes use of new technology as well with exposed ductwork and contemporary light fixtures. Cream City Properties, LLC is to be congratulated for taking a building whose use had become obsolete and transforming it into a inviting, attractive and functional space for their construction business.

Gail Fitch has had a lifelong passion for church architecture and the spirituality that is conveyed by these all-important buildings. She has written about churches for Historic Milwaukee’s newsletter, ECHO, and has brought a number of obscure churches to light in her in-depth and well-researched articles. As a member of the former Friedens congregation Gail nominated the church for local historic designation and has kept that building in the public eye. Gail uses her voice and her pen to advocate for the sensitive remodeling and upkeep of our sacred building stock. She has been a regular attendee of the Historic Preservation Commission meetings and has followed the preservation process through at Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee hearings.
 
In her articles, Gail has also focused attention on neighborhood tours and programs that feature historic buildings as well as the activities of Historic Milwaukee Inc., with whom she has been a volunteer since 1996. Gail is also a member of the Milwaukee Preservation Alliance.

Over the years Randy Bryant has become an indispensable and stalwart fixture of Milwaukee’s East Side preservation community. He serves on numerous committees and boards where he logs in countless hours at public hearings and neighborhood meetings ready with suggestions and ideas to make preservation work. Never one to take the easy route, Randy works behind the scenes on the nuts and bolts of preservation, on those less flashy but all-important matters of neighborhood planning and zoning and keeping on top of the nuisance issues created by inattentative absentee landlords.

Randy has proven himself a true friend of preservation by stepping in to acquire endangered buildings and purchasing and restoring numerous residences. With a keen eye for quality, a drive for perfection in his restorations and a view of preservation’s big picture, Randy Bryant is deeply committed to retaining and enhancing the special character of Milwaukee’s historic neighborhoods.