Milwaukee Lakefront Gateway Project:
Adjustments to Open Space
Changes to the local street network help to define new civic urban spaces and work to add new “usable” open space. “Open space” can be a very broad term and is not definitive as to whether people can use and enjoy the space. Some open spaces are configured, defined and made accessible for people, where other open spaces are residual, or merely the un-built spaces around buildings or roads.
Currently, the usable open spaces between Michigan Street and the Henry Maier Festival Grounds (Summerfest) occur east of the north-south Harbor Drive. The large open area is known as “Urban Park”. Sidewalks, park paths, and an access drive to the festival grounds surround the area. The Ned Kahn “Wind Leaves” sculpture is in the northern part of this area, aligned with the front of Discovery World and the Art Museum fountain/gardens to the north.
The new layout for the local streets east of Lincoln Memorial Drive both extends Clybourn Street to intersect with Art Museum Drive, and eliminates the northern portion of Harbor Drive.
While the new street area (for the Clybourn Street extension) in the south space (a) (Urban Park) reduces the usable open space by 14,752 square feet, conversely the abandonment of Harbor Drive (b) between Michigan Street and Clybourn increases the open space of the central space, the new Lakefront Gateway Plaza by 9,035 square feet, and the narrowing of Michigan Street (c) further adds 1,643 square feet of open space to the central area. With the removal of this section of Harbor Drive, 35,096 square feet of residual space (d) between the Harbor Drive and Lincoln Memorial Drive now is joined together with the existing usable space to form a new central space.
Some portions of the existing Urban Park will become a part of the Lakefront Gateway Plaza.
The usable open space of Urban Park also grows by 6,105 square feet to the west as the street area of remaining Harbor Drive (e) adjusts westward.
In Summary, the overall usable open space in this area south of Michigan Street and north of the Maier Festival Grounds grows by 36,179 square feet, or 16.8% because of new street configuration and spatial adjustments.
See Larger Versions of the Diagrams, HERE.