20 projects to be honored at Mayor’s Design Awards
Honorees include church-turned-taproom and new lakefront tower
When a tiny Methodist church that once espoused temperance gets a $5 million resurrection as a brewery and taproom, it is enough to make some in Milwaukee take to the choir loft and belt out a hallelujah.
That is ostensibly what Mayor Tom Barrett will do Thursday as he offers up his annual exhortation on the power of design to lift the City of Milwaukee, otherwise known as the Mayor’s Design Awards.
The Pabst Milwaukee Brewery and Taproom, which marked a return of the brewery to Milwaukee last year, revived what in the 19th century was the First German Methodist Church, a modestsized Cream City structure. The little building at North 11th Street and West Juneau Avenue later served as a local tavern, the Forst Keller, that was famous for its fish fry, beer and, for a time, gatherings of a pro-Nazi cohort, according to local historian John Gurda.
Now, the storied structure has been given a new life with a bright white interior, intimate seating in the choir loft and a giant, neon “Pabst” sign that
hangs overhead, casting a heavenly glow over those gathered to raise a glass.
The brewery, which is part of a larger, long-term redevelopment of the former Pabst brewery complex, now just called The Brewery, is one of 20 projects that Barrett will honor for enhancing public spaces, contributing to the fabric of neighborhoods or restoring or preserving existing treasures in the urban landscape.
The projects include new construction, such as the Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons downtown and the addition to the Mercantile Building in the Third Ward. But smaller, subtler projects will be honored, too, including the renovation of the Enderis Park playground, a staircase adorned with mosaics in the Arlington Heights neighborhood and facade renovations on South Chavez Drive.
Several projects give old buildings new uses, including the Historic Garfield Apartments and the redevelopments of the historic Germania and Mackie buildings.
Other award-winning projects include Sculpture Milwaukee, the annual A mosaic staircase in Arlington Heights is among the winners of the Mayor’s Design Awards. exhibit of sculpture along Wisconsin Avenue; the Mitchell Street Library & Alexander Lofts; the Farmhouse Paint and Sip; Kinn Guesthouse and Kindred; Good City Brewing; the BMO Harris Bank in Sherman Park; DoMUS apartment; the Bader Rutter headquarters and the Westin Hotel.
Barrett will present the awards Thursday at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s School of Architecture and Urban Planning, 2131 E. Hartford Ave. A pre-reception is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.; the awards will be presented at 5:15 p.m., and a reception will follow at 6:15 p.m.