FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 1, 2023
MEDIA CONTACT:
Anna Story, Mueller Communications
(414) 390-5500
astory@muellercommunications.com
MPM CELEBRATES CONSTRUCTION MILESTONE AT FUTURE MUSEUM SITE
Construction crews begin demolition on second of three existing buildings
MILWAUKEE — On Monday, May 1, demolition work will continue at Sixth and Vliet Streets to ready the site for the Milwaukee Public Museum’s future home. Contractors will take down the second of three existing buildings on the site, making way for a Future Museum building that will be set on a combined 2.4-acre site.
“Having finalized the architectural design for the Future Museum and shared sketches of interior views, our team is excited to see additional steps be taken in preparation for our Future Museum’s construction,” said Dr. Ellen Censky, President and CEO of the Milwaukee Public Museum. “Demolition today gets us one step closer to breaking ground.”
The location for the Museum’s future home was announced in the fall of 2020 at Sixth and McKinley Streets in downtown Milwaukee, in the Haymarket neighborhood adjacent to the Deer District.
In early 2021, the consultant team for the new museum was announced. Ennead Architects and Kahler Slater make up the architecture team, bringing together national and international expertise with local knowledge and creative ingenuity. Mortenson will oversee construction of the new building, using their experience in constructing complex venues to bring the vision of the community, MPM leadership, and the aforementioned creative teams to life. Mortenson has teamed with ALLCON, a local, diverse, woman-owned general contracting firm on the project. MC Group is serving as Owner’s Representative on the project, with Emem Group leading site development efforts.
About the Milwaukee Public Museum
The Milwaukee Public Museum is a natural and human history museum located in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Museum was chartered in 1882 and opened to the public in 1884. MPM has three floors of exhibits that encompass life-size dioramas, walk-through villages, world cultures, dinosaurs, a rainforest, and a live butterfly garden, as well as the Daniel M. Soref National Geographic Dome Theater & Planetarium. The Museum houses more than four million objects and hosts some half-a-million visitors each year.
MPM is operated by Milwaukee Public Museum, Inc., a private, non-profit company, and its facilities and collections are held in trust and supported by Milwaukee County for the benefit of the public.
About the Future Museum
The Milwaukee Public Museum, Wisconsin’s natural history museum, will be relocating from its current location on Wells Street in downtown Milwaukee to a newly constructed building due to open in late 2026. To be located on a 2.4-acre site at the corner of Sixth and McKinley Streets in the Haymarket neighborhood adjacent to the city’s Deer District, the Future Museum will be the largest cultural project in Wisconsin history. Heavily influenced by the ecological histories of Milwaukee and Wisconsin, the design of the new Museum will be reminiscent of the geological formations in Mill Bluff State Park, emblematic of the region’s diversity of landscapes formed by the movements of water through time.
The building will be approximately 200,000 square feet, including five stories, with an additional 50,000-square-foot collections storage building.
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