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Goals and Objectives
This studio project involves a multi-scale approach to
redeveloping a blighted industrial corridor in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The 30th Street Industrial Corridor, located northwest of downtown
Milwaukee, was a thriving manufacturing center during the first
half of the 20th century, employing thousands of neighboring residents
in this community. Like many other rustbelt cities of the northern
United States, however, changes in industrial practices, combined
with development incentives in the growing suburbs, resulted in
massive business disinvestment from the area during the latter half
of the 1900s. The consequences for the Corridor area include: 1)
relatively high unemployment and low income; 2) loss of higher-wage
jobs to outlying areas, as well as the changing nature of an industrial
economy; 3) high crime, low home-ownership, and negative perceptions
about the area from potential businesses; 4) lack of green space
compared with other parts of Milwaukee; and 5) the presence of brownfield
sites, often with unknown contamination status. In addition, there
are city-wide concerns about excessive stormwater runoff, to which
the Corridor contributes with its many impervious surfaces.
Our goal is creating a vision of Milwaukee
as a new sustainable city, and then describing how this vision
can be manifested at the
scales of the 30th Street Industrial Corridor and an industrial
site within the Corridor. Because we believe that city-wide policies
and programs influence the Corridor area, and that the fate of
Corridor
businesses and neighborhoods in turn affect the city’s development
and image, our goal and objectives integrate these telescoping
scales:
macro (city), meso (Corridor) and micro (site).
Our objectives at the city-scale are creating
an image of Milwaukee as a sustainable city, in order to make
the city more environmentally
responsible, physically greener and to recruit more businesses
in environmentally-oriented services, research and development,
and
manufacturing. These objectives include summarizing existing policies
and funding for business recruitment and workforce training,
identifying
the need for the city to reconsider light rail to connect the Corridor
with the rest of Milwaukee, and highlighting the importance of
communication
and marketing. At the Corridor scale, our objectives are to select
zones in the Corridor with more immediate redevelopment potential
for new green businesses and related educational opportunities,
and to develop strategic plans for each of these redevelopment
zones
based on existing parcel conditions and surrounding land uses.
Another Corridor-scale objective is proposing sites for more
multi-purpose
open space throughout the area. The site-scale objective is to
demonstrate more detailed expression of our goal, through a proposal
to integrate
mixed uses on a 150-acre site for sale and now occupied by Tower
Automotive Company. This includes a site plan that will act as
a
demonstration site which will epitomize the goals and objectives
for ‘Sustainable Milwaukee.’ It addresses potential
contamination while also accommodating new environmental businesses,
education and training, and more integration between the site
and
surrounding community.
A major challenge of this studio project was
its open-ended nature at the outset: there was no specific client,
program, or scale of
intervention. However, this challenge has resulted in the unique
nature of our project. Because it was our responsibility to define
the “site,” we learned to maintain a broad perspective
and consider the interdependence of scales. As a result, the
proposals
for each of the scales are not intended to stand alone, but combine
to offer our vision of Milwaukee in the future.
Kinds of environmental and social data collected and analyzed
City-scale data included information on business financing,
brownfield policy, city green programs, and LEED. This information
incorporated existing Milwaukee and Wisconsin programs (e.g., EPA
Brownfield Grants, rain barrel and downspout disconnect programs,
Main Street Milwaukee), as well as those in Seattle and Chicago
that we considered applicable precedents (Seattle: city greening
in South Lake Union; Chicago: Greencorps, and incentives for green
roofs and minority-owned businesses). Corridor-scale data included
demographic and economic information from the 2000 U.S. Census,
parcel information from the City of Milwaukee Property Database,
input from Milwaukee’s recent plan for the Fond du Lac-North
neighborhood, information about environmental industries in the
U.S., and data on potential contamination from Wisconsin databases
for storage tanks, contamination risk sites, and remediated sites.
Site-scale data considered additional site history derived from
Sanborn Insurance maps, to suggest possible sources of contamination
not necessarily in other databases, and also included information
on fates and remediation strategies for different kinds of contaminants.
In addition to these data, we gathered information and impressions
during a site visit; this included learning about city economic
development and storm sewer issues, and concerns of existing Corridor
businesses.
Methods of analysis
At the city scale, analysis focused on identifying a comprehensive
plan, programs, and funding sources to assist with the goal of a
more sustainable Milwaukee. Corridor-scale analysis considered several
issues: mapping demographic and economic factors of the Corridor
in a city-wide context, selecting parcels for redevelopment based
on combinations of features (parcels considered more readily available:
currently for sale, owned by the city or by realtors/developers,
tax-delinquent four or more years, relatively low assessed property
value), and selecting from the various contamination databases those
sites with more profound implications for land use (sites considered
not closed, and remediated sites identified as having potential
for residual soil or groundwater contamination). Site-scale analysis
focused on demographic and physical features of surrounding neighborhoods,
and explored the location and nature of possible contaminated areas.
How options were considered
At the city scale, we considered programs with demonstrated
achievement in Milwaukee as well as the precedent cities of Chicago
and Seattle, and that could support Corridor- and site-scale
proposals.
Corridor-scale options for redevelopment focused on devising strategies
tailored to each of the three targeted zones; these strategies
considered
each zone’s parcel assemblage and features amenable to different
kinds of environmental businesses, as well as the nature of adjacent
businesses (e.g., commercial vs. industrial, type of industry,
etc.)
and land uses. At the site scale, we considered how the combination
of environmental, employment, and educational concerns could be
addressed with mixed uses on the Tower Automotive site.
How interested parties would be involved in the project
The interconnectedness of this project necessitates many
players. We suggest that the City of Milwaukee have a strong role,
not only in terms of policy and funding, but also by articulating
a commitment to this vision that businesses and residents can believe
in and support. Existing Corridor business interests, currently
organized as the 30th Street Industrial Corridor Corporation, would
be involved in business recruitment by facilitating property identification.
Developing a green technology industry in the Corridor can also
benefit from involvement of Milwaukee area universities, such as
the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Marquette University.
Local neighborhood organizations, non-profit groups, and lending
institutions would also aid the project’s community sustainability
goal by assisting with home financing and neighborhood improvement.
Additionally, residents would be involved at the individual scale.
How design was used in the process
Design at the Corridor scale focused on how redevelopment
zones would complement existing businesses and accommodate new
manufacturing,
research and development, and service industries. We also considered
how proposed green spaces could be sited to enhance the community
with parks and gardens, remediate contamination, and buffer residential
land use from more incompatible industrial uses. Site-scale design
considered how proposed development and activities would work in
tandem and support each other, in a spatial configuration reflecting
the site’s physical attributes, existing structures, possible
contamination, lack of green space, and surrounding businesses
and
neighborhoods. Finally, at the city-scale, policies were designed
to support the overall goals and to tie the project together.
How the project would be implemented
This project would be phased in as funding becomes available
and organizational linkages are established. The early stages include
creating a task force to oversee the project, addressing contamination
with low-cost and long-term strategies of phyto- and bio-remediation,
developing the most readily available parcels in the Corridor soonest
and targeting infrastructure improvements at these areas to recruit
new businesses, and conducting a light rail feasibility study. This
earlier phase should also establish the vocational school on the
Tower Automotive site, and begin to develop job training programs
for the many unemployed residents in the area, utilizing and building
from existing job training funding sources. Later stages include
developing parcels with longer-term availability in Corridor redevelopment
zones, and consolidating public and private support for building
the EcoTech Museum on the Tower Automotive site. Beyond this, we
expect that Corridor businesses and neighborhoods will have the
tools they need to reclaim and improve the community as they choose
over time.
How the project would be administered and/or monitored
The project would be administered with the initial commitment
of city agencies involved in community development, and supported
by the broad array of other Corridor-area stakeholders.
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