| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office.
Pfeifer Construction Co. was the builder. Remodeled in 2007. Main facade is plate-glass and exposed steel structural beams. the original concrete facade with belltower was removed and the main lobby area enlarged into a two-story, glass-enclosed atrium.
The last privately-built railroad passenger station constructed in the United States, the Milwaukee Road built this station in 1965. It was designed by Donald L. Grieb & Associates of Milwaukee. The station was also utilized by the Chicago & North Western Railroad as a passenger depot and the Milwaukee Road used it for its general offices into the early 1980s. Amtrak service was instituted in 1971. The 2007 remodel was designed by Eppstein Uhen Architects.
Resurveyed for Milwaukee Downtown Connector Arch/History Survey, SHPO#10-0983, Prepared by Heritage Research (2010).
Donald Grieb, famous for his design of the Mitchell Park Geodesic Domes, created Milwaukee’s Amtrak Depot using repeated arch motifs typical of the New Formalism. While his domes became one of Milwaukee’s landmarks, the Amtrak station never earned a corresponding level of civic pride. Locals ridiculed it for its skinny windows, “gimmicky” bell tower, unusable entry portico, and acres of industrial wasteland south across the Menomonee River. In 2000, the Wisconsin Transportation Department purchased the building for an intermodal transportation center for rail, cabs, and buses. Its top two floors provide offices for Wisconsin DOT planners.
2019 - Not resurveyed (streetcar project). Loss of integrity. Update photo.
"Milwaukee's new passenger depot presents a rhythmical facade of slender white precast columns and arches framing recessed wall surfaces of glazed brown brick and glass. Its delicately proportioned bell tower of steel and concrete is west of the main entrance and in a direct line with North Fifth Street. This modern structure is the most recent in a series of Milwaukee Road stations dating back to 1850. In that year the line's first depot was built for the Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad--ambitiously named for its rail reached only as far as Wauwatosa. The Railroad Festival of 1851 celebrated the line's extension to Waukesha. Under the leadership of Alexander Mitchell and his successors, the railroad continued to expand, and in 1906 it reached the Pacific coast. Since the closing of the Chicago and North Western's familiar Wisconsin Avenue depot in 1966, the new station has also served the patrons of this railway." Pagel, Mary Ellen & Virginia A Palmer, University Extension The University of Wisconsin, Guides to Historic Milwaukee: Kilbourntown Walking Tour, 1967. |
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