Tom Daykin

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A public plaza with views of Milwaukee's inner harbor will be coming this summer to the end of E. Greenfield Ave.

The gathering space will use city-owned vacant land just east of the street's dead end and is part of a bigger effort to bring more life to the inner harbor area, said Lilith Fowler, Harbor District Inc. executive director.

The project's first phase, to be completed by September, will have concrete block benches interspersed within what Fowler called a "wetland garden."

Harbor District, a nonprofit group leading inner harbor redevelopment efforts, has raised $150,000 in grants to pay for that phase, Fowler said Wednesday.

A larger second phase would expand the public space to the water's edge, and north to land owned by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Freshwater Sciences.

It would include a play structure and viewing tower made from shipping containers, and an access point for canoes and kayaks, Fowler said. That second phase would cost around $1 million and would require more fundraising, she said.

The plaza was designed by Quorum Architects and Ayres Associates. It was chosen from among five entries submitted for the Harbor District's Take Me to the River public space design contest.

The plaza is designed to meet the larger goals of redevelopment within the Harbor District, Fowler said. That includes helping to maintain a working waterfront but also creating community space with an ecological function.

"It's a natural space," she said. "But it has elements of this urban environment."

Work on the plaza will begin this spring.

Fowler said the project will help draw more attention to the inner harbor area. She likened it to the Menomonee Valley's long-term redevelopment, which included creating a business park, other commercial buildings and public spaces, such as Three Bridges Park.

The valley, like the inner harbor, was once considered "the middle of nowhere" before redevelopment occurred, said Fowler. For several years, she was executive director of Menomonee Valley Partners Inc., which helped to lead those efforts.

The harbor area's first major commercial development, Freshwater Plaza, began opening in November at S. 1st St. and E. Greenfield Ave.

A four-story building, developed by Wangard Partners Inc., features 76 apartments and around 16,500 square feet of commercial space. A 50,000-square-foot Cermak Food Market is to open in March.

Along with an online public vote, the public plaza design contest had a review panel whose members voted on the entries.

Those panel members were Monique Charlier, principal with Rivet LLC construction consulting firm; Carolyn Esswein, a UWM School of Architecture and Urban Planning faculty member and Harbor District board member; Jeremy Fojut, of Newaukee; Val Klump, School of Freshwater Sciences dean; Ald. José Pérez, a Harbor District board member; and Silvia Rodriguez, Riley Elementary School teacher and Harbor District resident.