Docomomo US/Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Architectural Archives at the Milwaukee Public Library present "From the Archives" - a new lecture series on midcentury Architecture, Art, and Design.
Each event in this new series will include a lecture or panel discussion, interactive archive presentations, and a mini-exhibition of drawings and photographs on the lecture topic.
Join us on Tuesday November 7 at the premier lecture in the series, "58 Schools in 15 Years: Milwaukee's Post-War Public School Building Boom," presented by Justin Miller, Architectural Historian at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Cultural Resources Management and Docomomo US/Chicago board member.
This free event will be located on-site at the Wisconsin Architectural Archive at the Frank P. Zeidler Humanities Room on the 2nd floor of the Milwaukee Public Central Library at 814 West Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53233.
The schedule for the evening is as follows:
5:45pm Archive doors open
6:00pm Mini-Exhibition
6:30pm Lecture and Discussion
7:30pm Archive Materials Presentation
8:00pm Archive doors close
Lecture description:
The decades after WWII were a time of record-breaking growth and momentous change. Across the country, the baby boom set off a population explosion, and cities struggled with issues of population flight, suburbanization, and the demand for new housing. Milwaukee was no exception. Its dramatic post-war growth, encouraged by the aggressive annexation policy of its last Socialist mayor, is distinct among Midwestern cities. Milwaukee's responses to swelling school enrollment illustrate both its historic commitment to public education and its forward-looking post-war optimism.
To keep up with Milwaukee's rapid expansion in land area, the Milwaukee Board of School Directors undertook the most extensive building program in its history. Between 1950 and 1965, the school board construction 58 new schools, oversaw 87 major additions to existing schools, and undertook 37 interior modernization projects at existing schools. To accomplish this massive building campaign, the school board hired architectural consultants, including a group of significant Milwaukee midcentury architects. Among them were Harry Bogner and his brother Walter; Lillian Leenhouts, Wisconsin's first licensed female Architect, and Donald Grieb, designer of the iconic Mitchell Park Domes. Further, the post-war building campaign saw the adoption of materials and technologies of the era and the emergence of several distinct building typologies.
An examination of the 58 post-war public schools provides an interesting case study in shifting architectural trends, evolving school board practices and policies, and fundamental changes to the idea of public education in Milwaukee.