Site 1: Milwaukee Ale House, 233 N Water Street
I've been to and passed the Ale House many times. The food and ambience are enjoyable, and sitting out on the river for brunch is awesome. Just looking on their website told me the building's history. A saddlemaker, sailmaker, and the inventor of the Hula Hoop all inhabited this building at one time or another. It also says that this six-floor building is a historic landmark- I definitely wouldn't have ever known that.
Site 2: The City Center at 735 N Water Street
My dad (a self-employed architect) has worked a lot with the proprietor of this building. During one of the projects he was working on, I got to go up on the roof. Also, before the Gold's Gym was completed, I had a piece of art hanging on a plywood door for around a year (as seen in the Google maps screenshot). He wrote up a historical synopsis of the building for me (since the website doesn't have one yet):
735 N. Water was designed by Daniel Burnham in 1912 and finally built around 1917. It was one of his last projects and the only one of his in Milwaukee. Burnham was a very famous Chicago architect and was instrumental in the Chicago Exposition of 1893 (The White City). He also coined the phrase: "Make no little plans, for they do not stir men's souls."
The building was originally designed for the First Bank of Wisconsin. They eventually moved (1970 or so) to the lakefront tower that had borne their name until recently.
The building is 16 stories, plus penthouse and is constructed of a steel and concrete structure and brick and stone exterior. Over the years that Compass Properties has owned and managed the building (approx. 10 years), they have repaired the cornice along the top of the building, redone the Riverwalk and have upgraded the heating and cooling systems to receive a LEED Silver rating and a BOMA 360 rating (the first for a multi-tenant building in Milwaukee).
Mattes Architects became the "house" architect in 2005, when Compass was looking for a small firm to move fast and provide good customer service.
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