Proposal would put museum next to Domes

Budget amendment calls for officials to study plan

“I want bigger, better and bolder for both.” County Board Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic

Milwaukee County would study the feasibility of building a new home for the Milwaukee Public Museum at Mitchell Park next to the horticultural conservatory housed in the Domes, under a 2019 budget amendment.

County Board Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic is asking the County Board to create a study committee of county officials that would look at options for colocating the Milwaukee Public Museum with the Domes at Mitchell Park. The committee would be expected to make recommendations in March 2019.

The County Board’s finance committee Thursday unanimously recommended approval of Dimitrijevic’s amendment.

The Domes generally are in poor condition with up to $30 million in deferred repairs, officials said. Water regularly leaks into the Domes during heavy rains and the concrete columns supporting each dome are crumbling.

A citizen task force is reviewing two options for the future of the Domes: do the basic repairs; or invest up to $95 million to complete the repairs and add canopy walks, an aquarium, butterfly exhibits and other ecological science features to pull in more visitors and more revenue.

That group did not consider building a new conservatory and is expected to make its final recommendation to the board early next year.

In 2017, museum officials announced they were looking for a new location to build a state-of-the-art natural history museum at a cost of more than $100 million.

“I want bigger, better and bolder for both” the museum and the Domes, Dimitrijevic said.

“Locating the new Milwaukee Public Museum in Mitchell Park creates a tremendous opportunity for establishing a new world-class cultural site,” she said.

Museum officials expect to narrow their site search down to four or five locations by the end of this year, said Ellen Censky, the museum’s interim president and CEO.

Even so, Censky said Thursday she is interested in the Mitchell Park proposal and the committee’s findings. The museum would be represented on the committee, according to Dimitrijevic.

“Milwaukee Public Museum is excited about our future and is continuing to explore many possibilities and potential partnerships,” Censky said.

Dimitrijevic said the combination of the museum and horticultural conservatory at one location would provide joint educational opportunities around the rain forest exhibit at the museum and the tropical forest display inside one of the Domes.

On Thursday, Dimitrijevic invited supervisors to join her “on dream lane” and support the study. “I think it would breathe new life into the Domes,” she said.

The committee unanimously recommended approval of the study as a budget amendment. The board will adopt a final budget on Nov. 5.

“We will need creative ideas to support the mission and collections of these two important cultural institutions, and I will be interested to see the results of a study that explores the benefits of connecting the two,” County Executive Chris Abele said.

“Sustaining the cultural and educational institutions that our community depends on presents a major challenge for Milwaukee County with our current fiscal limitations.”

The county already faces “a seemingly insurmountable backlog” of tens of millions of dollars worth of maintenance for buildings and roads and lacks the resources to make headway in paring it down, according to a recent report by the Wisconsin Policy Forum report.