Photo credit: Joe Karr, ca. 1970
Marcus Center for the Performing Arts
The Cultural Landscape Foundation recently wrote in a media release: “To have, within blocks of each other, two public projects [at the Marcus Center and Milwaukee Art Museum] that bookend the civic career of one of the most important post-war landscape architects is of great cultural significance for the City of Milwaukee—a distinction that once forfeited can never be regained, and one that should be carefully weighed against the center’s plans, especially given its stated mission to provide ‘the best of cultural and community programming.’ This important public space is leased by the County of Milwaukee to the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, and there should be public input before it is erased forever. At the very least, citizens and design professionals should be allowed to review and voice their opinions about the plans. There has, however, been no indication that either the county or the center itself will provide such an opportunity.”
Washington Park has been nominated for designation as a local historic district by Michael Carriere, an associate professor of history and environmental studies at Milwaukee School of Engineering. The Historic Preservation Commission is scheduled to vote on the nomination on Monday, Jan. 14, followed by review by the Common Council’s zoning committee and then the full council.
The March on Milwaukee 50th Anniversary Committee is working to honor, with historic markers, sites in Milwaukee where Civil Rights-era milestones happened.
