The Erie Street Plaza in Milwaukee is a hinge. Boats turn around it. To walkers, bikers, and joggers, fishermen and canoeists, it is the threshold between the urban intensity of the River Walk and the vast openness of the lake. The Erie St. Plaza marks the moment of transition from the Milwaukee and Kinnickinnic Rivers to Lake Michigan. Likewise, it is the point where the energy of the city's lake front path system wraps around, turns inland, and meets the river. This site is an important, unique moment in the city. RMA's design celebrates and exaggerates this hinge. At the Erie Street Plaza, we propose a tilted plane of light anchored by a bermed landscape and a path that wraps the water's edge. From the Hoan Bridge, the Plaza will read as a beacon of light. From the western banks of the river, the Plaza will serve as a unique marker for the growing Third Ward neighborhood. From the Third Ward, the Plaza offers a green space that children and families can climb and walk up on. From the Lakeshore, the Plaza's tilted planes create a visual marker, guiding people to the river and providing a sheltered place to sit once they're there.

AIA NYC Project Citation, Finalist, International Design Competition

with Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects