Property Record
250 E KILBOURN AVE
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | |
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| Other Name: | MGIC Plaza |
| Contributing: | |
| Reference Number: | 16656 |
| Location (Address): | 250 E KILBOURN AVE |
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| County: | Milwaukee |
| City: | Milwaukee |
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| Unincorporated Community: | |
| Town: | |
| Range: | |
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| Section: | |
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| Year Built: | 1973 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1984 |
| Historic Use: | large office building |
| Architectural Style: | Late-Modern |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Marble |
| Architect: | SKIDMORE, OWINGS AND MERRILL |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| National Register Listing Date: | |
| State Register Listing Date: |
| 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. In the 1970s, when many corporations were moving to spacious new campuses in the suburbs, Mortgage Guaranty Investment Corporation CEO John Karl sited this four-building mini-campus in Milwaukee’s downtown. Karl’s MGIC, which created the private, home mortgage insurance industry in 1957, went public in 1968 and building downtown underscored Karl’s commitment to his home city. The focal point is a four-story pavilion under a broad roof housing MGIC’s headquarters. Dramatically cantilevered, striped with gleaming white travertine, it is one of the city’s best modern designs. A skywalk links the pavilion to a ten-story marble-clad office block, also built in 1971. Both structures were designed by Chicago’s Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. SOM helped pioneer and popularize the glass-curtain-wall office buildings that became ubiquitous in large American cities and suburbs after World War II. In the 1960s and 1970s, SOM earned further fame by designing giant “trophy" office buildings for large corporations. INLAND-ROBBINS CONSTRUCTION, INC. WERE THE BUILDERS. |
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| Bibliographic References: | MILWAUKEE HISTORIC BUILDINGS TOUR: JUNEAU TOWN, 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 |