Wow - what a house!

This house is on Kilbourn Avenue near Marquette U and is one of the most ornate homes I have seen in Milwaukee - built in 1898, it is the Joseph B. Kalvelage house designed by Otto Strack who also designed The Pabst Theater. The style is German Baroque Revival. The carvings on the portico are fantastic! The house is currently under some type of renovation. I would love to see the interior.

Out and about

I have been reading 'Built in Milwaukee -
An Architectural View of the City' and it has made me very curious to check out some of the neighborhoods and buildings around Milwaukee. Bailey and I took a drive through Brewer's Hill and checked out some of the old Schlitz Brewing Co buildings. They are very impressive -huge, cream city brick buildings with alot of detail and ornamentation. It is nice to see them being used for other businesses, restaurants, etc. but at the same time it is sad that "The Beer that Made Milwaukee Famous" is no longer here. I wish I could go back in time and see what it looked like when this brewing giant was in full force.

My favorite building is the stables. Again, the detail on the building is awesome. Gotta love the horse heads. It is very sad that one of the most impressive buildings has recently been been hidden behind a big ugly parking structure. I am happy to see new development and the corporate headquarters of Manpower moving downtown was huge for the city, but dang! - that parking ramp sucks.

Lazy Day

It's another chilly day here in the Mil. Don't feel much like getting out to explore. I'm doing alot of info mining online and sending emails to "old friends" as I need to get back into the tourism swing of things in the Milwaukee area and need to re-establish my contacts. Bailey is playing her favorite character of Osama bin Bailey hiding in her Afghani cave, only coming out when there is a possibility of a treat! I am off tonight to the MMAC Business After Hours shindig at Crate & Barrel for some good old networking. This is a great way to meet people in the city and make some valuable business connections.

I have been doing alot of research on Milwaukee architecture for my tours. Milwaukee really has some incredible architecture from the late 1800's, early 1900's and just recently the city has been in a building renaissance. I was really happy to read in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the Federal Building is going through a major window renovation - this magnificent building is 108 years old, designed by the supervising architect of the US Dept of Treasury, Willoughby J. Edbrooke - he also designed the Old Post Office on Pennsylvania Ave in DC - they look very similar. It is a giant grey granite castle built in the Richardson Romanesque style - absolutely powerful. There are 650 windows that are getting some love - like scraping off 18 layers of paint! Check out the slideshow on jsonline.