Water tower sculpture lifted onto Walker’s Point perch
Not long before a crane hoisted a massive water tower sculpture to the top of her company’s Walker’s Point building Thursday morning, a woman approached CEO Peggy Coakley.
“Are you the person we have to thank for this?” asked Kristine Hinrichs, who lives nearby in Westown.
Coakley said yes, she had commissioned Brooklyn, N.Y., artist Tom Fruin to create the mosaic piece that sat on the ground a few yards away.
“I think this is an amazing gift to our community,” Hinrichs said. “I like it that someone is taking such a big risk on the community, and on art.”
Coakley’s family-run company, Coakley Brothers Co., focuses on office equipment and interiors, and moving and storage. She spotted one of Fruin’s water towers in Brooklyn and decided to bring one to Milwaukee.
“I had a 40-foot-high base and thought this would look beautiful on it,” Coakley said. “We’re already getting a tremendous response from the neighborhood. It’s been
very rewarding.”
The colorful tower is now visible through much of downtown and the south side, and will be illuminated for the first time Tuesday night.
The work serves as a beacon for the creative district in the redeveloping Walker’s Point neighborhood. It also gives a nice boost of attention to the Coakley business and the $6 million renovation of the building at 400 S.
2nd St. now underway.
Fruin’s piece stands 20 feet tall and is 20 feet in diameter. It was designed and assembled in Brooklyn and shipped in pieces to Milwaukee last week. Fruin and some helpers did the final assembly in the Coakley parking lot earlier this week.
The 15,000-pound plexiglass and steel sculpture was designed in the shape of the water tank that sat on top of the Coakley building until it was removed decades ago.
Fruin beamed and soaked up the attention during the dramatic lift, which took about 10 minutes.
“I asked if I could ride up inside with it,” he said with a grin. “But they claimed they had a weight limit.”
Instead, he, Coakley and others took an elevator to the roof of the seven-story building. They climbed two ladders another 40 feet, inched across scaffolding and popped through a door into the structure itself.
“How about that!” Coakley exclaimed as she stepped inside the piece amid noise from workers bolting the structure into place.
It was oddly quiet, a bit warm and stuffy inside, but the panorama of Milwaukee, seen through Fruin’s mosaic, was breathtaking.
The High Rise and Hoan bridges, Miller Park, Marquette University and the Allen Bradley clock tower were part of the panorama. And 11 stories straight down, one could see the south end of the 6th St. viaduct and traffic circle, along with the Bradley Tech high school and athletic field.
On ground, enjoying the event from lawn chairs, sat Peggy’s father Neil Coakley, and his wife, Jan.
“I never thought I’d see something like this on top of our building,” said Coakley, 87, the retired CEO of the 129-year-old company.
“At night when it lights up, you’ll be seeing it across the city. That’s going to be real fun.”