Milwaukee 2018...II

Milwaukee, Wisconsin is one of my favorite cities to visit and photograph. Why, you ask? Because it’s an “old looking” city like Chicago and it has its share of landmark and historic buildings including the fabulous Art Museum on the Lakefront. Another good thing about coming to Milwaukee is that, with this being my first time back in about 3 years, I see the many changes around downtown. There are new hotels, hi-rise apartments and condos and a new street car system. I’ve seen a lot of cities with street cars making their way through downtowns…I guess it’s to help with the population increase and ridership in their growing cities. And plus, going through Milwaukee you’re bound to see some kind of reminder of the ever-popular rivalry with the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears. Such was the case when I was walking downtown and couldn’t resist getting a photo of Green Bay and Chicago expressway signage.

Still making my way around downtown, I see lots of construction going on. I stop to snap a photo of construction at the new Hammes Company Headquarters. I continue walking across the Knapp Street bridge past The Art’s Performing Center Gentlemen’s Club (no, I didn’t go in…they were closed). While passing my Aloft Hotel, I noticed public art along the Riverwalk. These pieces, part of the Manpower Sculpture Collection included: Gerhard Kroll's ‘Vertical Spirit I’ sculpture, Ted Kraynik's ‘A Phoenix’ sculpture, Aaron Bezale's ‘Israeli Figures’ sculpture and Elmer Winter's ‘The Impossible Dream’ sculpture, which was made from car bumpers, and I thought was very creative. I also walked past The Moderne, a new hi-rise building which features a Carson’s rib restaurant on the lower level. My next stop is Fiserv Forum, new home of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and Marquette University men’s basketball team. Across the street from Fiserv Forum is the Froedtert and Medical College of Wisconsin Sports Science Center, which also serves as the team’s medical facility.

After a brief lunch at Carson’s and a little "rest up" back at the Aloft Hotel, I make my way over to the Lakefront to photograph the “new and improved” Milwaukee skyline. With the addition of the Northwestern Mutual building and various hi-rises, Milwaukee’s skyline is slowly looking much better. Later in the evening, I'm back on the Lakefront for dusk and night photos of the Art Museum. Once I got there, the wings to the museum were open at this point. But after leaving to photograph other parts of downtown, I got back to find that the museum wings were closed. Boy was I very disappointed. It was my own fault that I didn’t stay in my original spot, but I still got great photos of the museum and the closed wings.