Property Record
777 E WISCONSIN AVE
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | FIRST WISCONSIN CENTER |
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| Other Name: | FIRSTAR CENTER |
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| Reference Number: | 40639 |
| Location (Address): | 777 E WISCONSIN AVE |
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| County: | Milwaukee |
| City: | Milwaukee |
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| Year Built: | 1973 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1984201520162017 |
| Historic Use: | large office building |
| Architectural Style: | Late-Modern |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Aluminum/Vinyl Siding |
| Architect: | SKIDMORE, OWINGS & MERRILL |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
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| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| Additional Information: | TALLEST BUILDING IN WISCONSIN. Wisconsin's tallest building, rising forty-two stories above Lake Michigan, quickly became one of Milwaukee's most familiar landmarks. The glass-curtain-wall Firstar Center is the creation of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, whose late-1960s high-rise office-building architecture made them America's most sought-after corporate-architecture firm of the period. The building belongs to a family of 1960s and 1970s skyscrapers designed with exposed an exaggerated exterior structural framing. SOM’s John Hancock Building in Chicago, is the most famous example of this type. The Firstar building went up during a phase in American corporate history when clients wanted broad floor plates to locate all bank functions on a single floor. Innovations in air conditioning and fluorescent lighting made the large box shape possible, and expensive urban lots resulted in taller buildings with elegant entry levels. The US Bank Center has a large marble-trimmed lobby filled with plants, artwork, and access to upper floors. Though skyscrapers transformed many cities' Victorian skylines into mountain ranges of steel and glass, Milwaukee retained its mix of urban architecture. Civic boosters once viewed the tall, modernistic buildings as proof of economic vitality and progressiveness. Resurveyed 2016 by UWM-CRM as part of Milwaukee Bublr bikeshare project. 2015- This 42-story office building is the tallest structure in the State of Wisconsin and is built in the Contemporary Style. It essentially occupies two city blocks. The lower portion of the structure is defined by the Galleria and is two stories tall facing Wisconsin Avenue. Given the downhill slope from E. Wisconsin Avenue to E. Michigan and E Clybourn Street, additional levels are below the Galleria to the south. The tower is centered on that part of the building located in the block bounded E. Wisconsin Avenue on the north, N. Van Buren Street on the west, E. Michigan Street on the south and N. Cass Street on the east. It rises from the Galleria with its take-off point defined by structural diagonals. It then rises eleven stories before the tower is embellished with another course of structural diagonals, and then rises to its full, 42-story height, the final two floors again notable for the structural diagonals. Between the levels with diagonals, the structure employs white aluminum sheathing and four panel window units. The building makes extensive use, both inside and out, of travertine marble, which offers is a sense of distinction--its height notwithstanding. Historically known as the First Wisconsin Center, the building was erected by the First Wisconsin Development Company for the First Wisconsin National Bank of Milwaukee. It was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill of Chicago and cost approximately $25,000,000. The building was constructed between 1971 and 1973. The building was retained by the bank's subsequent owners and today belongs to the US Bank Corporation. 2016- "The First Wisconsin Center was constructed in 1973. It is within the APE for proposed station site #8- US Bank Center." -"Mult. Locations, Milwaukee, 7.5 series", WisDOT #2190-06-01, Prepared by Kelly Noack and Justin Miller, UWM-CRM (2016). 2017 - This 42-story, steel-frame skyscraper was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) and constructed in 1973. It occupies more than a full city block and is Wisconsin’s tallest building. The skyscraper features a contemporary design with exposed structural framing. The steel members are sheathed with white aluminum, which boldly contrasts with the building’s grid of darkly tinted glass windows across all elevations. The regular array of windows is broken up by bands of diagonal truss-like steel members at stories 5, 18, and 42. The first two stories are the building’s lobby, which is a broad, rectangular, glass-walled mass that extends the entire block from East Wisconsin Avenue to East Michigan Street, and then over the latter further to the south. |
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| Bibliographic References: | ZIMMERMAN, 21. MILWAUKEE JOURNAL 8/16/1992. MILWAUKEE HISTORIC BUILDINGS TOUR: JUNEAUTOWN, CITY OF MILWAUKEE DEPARTMENT OF CITY DEVELOPMENT, 1994. Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |