BLUEPRINT Building: Exton Apartment Building, Milwaukee Completed: 1938 Builder: Unknown Architect: Herbert W. Tullgren Biggest Fan: Cherie Claussen, HGA Inc., Wauwatosa

Prospect apartments catch Claussen’s attention

From the outside looking in, the apartment building at 1260 N. Prospect Ave. in Milwaukee seems like a great place to call home.

"They have all these curved bay windows, and I think it must be a great place to live, but I've never been inside," said Cherie Claussen, principal and regional office director with HGA Inc. in Wauwatosa. "I know somebody who lives there who threw a party there, and I was just kicking myself for missing it because I was out of town."

The 69-unit building overlooking Lake Michigan from Milwaukee's Prospect Avenue is one of a long line of condominiums and apartments that stretch down the street. Claussen said the building outshines its more modern competitors on the street thanks to its bulging windows and stone walls.

Photos by Sean Ryan

Claussen said she remembers first seeing the building while she meandered down Prospect during her college days at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

"Since I went to UWM, I went up and down Prospect Avenue a lot, and I just remember it from school," she said. "A lot of buildings that have been built since then have tried to emulate it, but they haven't compared. Nobody can afford to make them out of stone anymore, and it just doesn't have the quality of development."

Each unit in the building has two floors, and elevators eliminate annoyance by not stopping on the bedroom floors, she said. Without any firsthand experience of the interior, Claussen said she imagines looking through panorama windows over Lake Michigan from spacious interiors.

"All of the views from the east and the south have to be spectacular," she said. "You just look at the new buildings and look at the one I like and think there is no comparison."

- Sean Ryan