If any of this looks somewhat familiar . . . it is. SurgRN911 was kind enough to add a link to the Santiago Calatrava Quadracci Pavilion so I took part of my Milwaukee Art Museum review and spliced and diced and rewrote and put in some new stuff about the interior and exterior of this addition to our Art Museum. There are links to the other museum reviews at the end of this piece.

The Benefactors:

In 1997, Harry and Betty Quadracci pledged $10 million to the Milwaukee Art Museum campaign for a new addition. The sixth-richest man in Wisconsin in 2001, Quadracci's donation largely made the Milwaukee Art Museum's major overhaul possible. In 1985, Quadracci founded The Quad/Creative Group. The firm's offices in Milwaukee and New York City provide professional design services for publishers, catalogers, retailers and other businesses. Before his death in 2003, Harry Quadracci was a trustee of the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Please try to take a look at the five pages of pictures on this site for a virtual tour: http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/wisconsin/milwaukee/calatrava/calatrava.html

Earlier this month Epinions' Travel and food writer, tombarnes visited Milwaukee for a quick two-day tour. One afternoon we made it over to the lakefront to have a look at the new addition to our Art Museum. Outside, on the cement terraces, we found a 1947 Brooks Stevens' designed Milwaukee Road Olympia Hiawatha Sky-Top Lounge Car. It was parked just a few yards away from an original example of the Oscar Meyer Wiener-mobile; I almost started singing that song. Both vehicles were from the as yet to open retrospective of Brooks Stevens' designs.

The fountains in the gardens that run along the front of the pavilion were all bursting forth in joyous noises. While crossing the suspension bridge we noticed the way the grass was cut to exaggerate the triangular design of the landscaping. The miniature flowering trees had already finished blooming, but the fountains sure helped dull the traffic noises on Art Museum Drive.

Milwaukee seems to have a predilection for giving perfectly good streets new names; it's tacky beyond belief as far as I’m concerned. It seems that someone with clout in city government slapped the new name on the former Lincoln Memorial Drive, or was it called North Lake Drive? Anyway, it's the same name as the one that runs along Chicago's famous lakefront! No tourist or casual visitor will ever know or remember this little fact, but it bugs the hell out of some of the long-time residents.

This busy highway rushes along the lakefront and past the Museum to Harbor Drive and the Hoan Bridge, which links our lakefront to the south side villages of Bay View and Franklin. Harbor Drive leads visitors to Maier Festival Park where Milwaukee's music festival, Summerfest, holds forth. This is also where all the ethnic festivals and PrideFest take place. A few blocks away, the I94 freeway gives access to Chicago to the south, Green Bay to the north and the Mississippi River to the west.

The bike path that runs along our lakeshore and passes right in front of the Calatrava addition is now complete. Trees and grass have been planted and everything looks wonderful except for some very uncomfortable cement benches that have no backs so visitors couldn’t possibly think of staying very long to look at Lake Michigan from that vantage point. They are, however, somehow electrified with a few dinky lights at the bottom of each bench that scarcely illuminate the path; our city fathers are so forward thinking!

The weekend of June 20-23 saw the 47th Annual Lakefront Festival of the Arts at its new home on the grounds surrounding the Milwaukee Art museum. I've walked around these Art festivals for years, but this year I chose to stick close to my garden and forgo the pleasure of viewing what is billed as one of the nation's premier art festivals. The crowds have become intolerable for me.

Along with admission to the festival, patrons are given free admission to the whole museum; not just the new Quadracci Pavilion that everyone wants to see with its flashy new exhibit, a tribute to Milwaukee native Brooks Stevens in Industrial Strength Design: How Brooks Stevens Shaped Your World. The exhibit runs through September 7, 2003.

Stevens was born here in 1911 and spent his entire career here designing beautiful and useful modern products that could be found in many houses and apartments around the world. He executed over 40 automobile designs (Studebaker and the Excalibur), numerous outboard motors, snowmobiles and self-propelled and riding mowers. He designed company logos and that train for the Milwaukee Road, which is no longer in existence.

Once inside the pavilion everything is blinding white marble, white paint, glass and stainless steel, either brushed or not. This huge space is like being inside the prow of a ship pointed out towards Lake Michigan. A giant sun shade (Brise Soliel) that looks like the wings of a bird, ws made in Spain. It covers the arched cathedral-like roof. It is closed at night and kept closed on windy days.

I covered descriptions of the bathrooms and the café in the book review, so go read that if you have to know. I know I mentioned how squished the new addition looked in its new setting in my book review, but somehow with all the landscaping completed the building and the grounds look downright airy and spacious. Be sure to take some time and look at the five pages of photographs that accompany this site.

Tom and I had a good walk-around in the space available, visited the gift shop (with fixtures by Calatrava) and generally agreed that the huge multicolored Dale Chihuly glass sculpture would have looked much better in the "prow" facing the lake. It would be much more effective than where you'll see it if you look at the pictures (hint, hint). Parked just outside the exhibit entrance we saw a combination land, sea and air vehicle that looked a little like something from a cartoon. It was all cherry red and cream and chrome with helicopter blades to lift it off the ground. It was just wonderful.

The place was all a-buzz with caterers who were setting up for the show's grand opening the next day. We looked at what we could and admired the Alexander Calder mobile while one of the docents chattered away with us. She was just full of information and pointed out a racing car that was displayed in circular space two floors below the Calder mobile. She said the Museum planned to project racing movies against the circular walls. That would be some fun to see me-thinks. I haven't been to see the exhibit yet, but the museum is free to locals on Wednesday and Saturday mornings until eleven.

Rather than ride the circular glass elevator up to the bridge back to downtown Milwaukee, I led the way through some back hallways so we could have a look at the Eero Sareninen part of the old museum. Then we walked across Lincoln Memorial Bridge and stopped to at my place to have a soda and see my shade garden.

On The Lake Near The Museum:

A few hundred yards from the museum one finds The Piece’s of Eight Restaurant. It's been there since the early 60s perched on a piece of land that has the best views of our lakefront that are available from anywhere excepting a private boat of some sort. The food has never been anything special, but I always liked sitting on the patio on a lazy summer or fall day, or maybe even inside with a mug of coffee on a winter afternoon. You can look back at our city over the small expanse of water.

The restaurant has been having its own problems with the City Fathers. They were told that their lease would not be renewed, but that problem's been solved and long may they serve brunch and cocktails. A review will be forthcoming one day soon when (and if) I can get it listed.

Pier Wisconsin, formerly the Lake Schooner Education Association, which tried to grab the land, has scooted over an acre or two and will build what is purported to be a sort of “bargain-basement version” of the Calatrava addition on their piece of shoreline. Just because this organization built a full-sized Lake Schooner by hand on the site they now occupy, they seem to think they should be allowed to build whatever they want even if it might be confused by some as a part of the Art Museum. They seem to be using the flawed reasoning that because they say they're all about ships, and this is the shore of Lake Michigan, they can do whatever they want . . . including getting rid of the restaurant.

I saw a drawing of the proposed building and, yes it’s white and it has what looks like sails . . . but not the wings of the sun shade of the new addition. I wonder what I'll have to say when this miniature monstrosity gets built; I sure was wrong about the Calatrava addition. I hope they can all co-exist peacefully. If you come to visit you can see this all in one stop.

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Milwaukee Art Museum
700 North Art Museum Drive

You can drive there and park in the underground parking lot or park across the street at O'Donnell Park and cross at the stoplights. From Wisconsin Avenue you can use the pedestrian bridge also designed by Calatrava.

414-224-3200 for General information. Members receive free admission, as does one guest. Non-member adults are $6, seniors/students $4, and children under 12 are admitted free. For Special exhibition tickets call 1-866-MAM-1323

Admission to everything but special events is free to all Milwaukee County residents on Wednesday and Saturday mornings from 10 a.m. to Noon.

My review of the Leonardo da Vinci Exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum is at: http://www.epinions.com/content_76152737412

My review of the book "Building a Masterpiece: The Milwaukee Art Museum" is at: http://www.epinions.com/content_45297798788

© Ed Grover - 2003


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