Everyone wants this. It's like all the stars have lined up. Many say the Milwaukee Art Museum was the catalyst for moving lakefront planning beyond a struggle for dominance among Balkanized fiefdoms, each with its own claims on the land. The museum's Calatrava addition, which will include a cabled pedestrian bridge, a movable, wing-like roof and a formal piazza, raised the bar for design, helped spark the JJR plan and set the tone for greening up Harbor Commission lands to the south. And, by building a literal and metaphorical bridge between the lake and the downtown, the museum got others thinking likewise.
People are tired of fighting.
For all the enthusiasm about working together and raising the lakefront's profile, the waters are not entirely calm. Most of the shoreline from McKinley Marina to Maier Festival Park was created over the years by filling in the lake. Anything developed there must be related to navigation or marine activities and open to everyone. If some folks had their way, however, there would be more commercial development on the lakefront, not less. Hanbury sees the lakefront as a major drawing card in the competition with other cities for convention business.