Architecture is as natural as breathing.
It's an impulse, an instinct, the tangible extension of self-preservation. To say the history of architecture reflects the history of us is no more an overstatement than arguing the persistence of life is our nature.
The best golfers in the world will converge on the Sheboygan and Kohler areas next August for the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits Golf Course.
They're going to want a nice place to stay, good options for dining and fun diversions for their kids while the fathers are earning a living on the links.
There's a faded white scar on the tip of David Kraemer's chin.
He points to it when he's talking about construction and his history in the industry. It proves, he said, that he's a construction industry lifer.
It seems that as a society we long for what we see as the purity of the past.
The problem is that we seem to fare well in Norman Rockwell prints but less so in history books. Nostalgia for the obsolete has always lent itself to a gauzy view of the past, and yet, traditionally, this country has been more enamored with what the future might hold.
Wisconsin companies place among the 400 largest general contractors in America, as compiled by Engineering News-Record.
Wisconsin-based companies aren't yet in the same league as the international construction behemoth, but Badger State firms are creeping up the list of America's biggest contractors. In the latest posting of Engineering News-Record's Top 400 general contractors, Wisconsin is home to 14 of the companies, including eight that moved up in the rankings and two that appeared on the elite roster after no-shows last year.
Ask an architect for his favorite building, and you're likely to be greeted with silence.
An architect instinctively realizes what a loaded question that is. There are so many factors that go into naming a building as your favorite.
City Hall earns Engberg's lifelong appreciation
As a child, Charles Engberg hopped off a downtown Milwaukee streetcar and wondered at the height and spectacle of City Hall.
Today, as a founding partner of Engberg Anderson Design Partnership, he is busy on a project to restore the building's exterior to its 1930s status.
US Bank is apple of West’s eye
Michael West, architect and engineer with Computerized Structural Design Inc. in Bayside, chose the US Bank building, formerly the First Wisconsin Center, in downtown Milwaukee as his favorite building.
He picked the 42-story, 5,000-window building — and qualified it by calling it his “candidate to date” — largely because of the engineering behind what's still the tallest building in the state.
Martzke puts Field House in perspective
Some buildings look better when you're right up next to them. Others need some distance to be fully appreciated.
And still others benefit from both perspectives. Such is the case of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Field House, which Paul Martzke, architect with Berners-Schober Associates Inc., Green Bay, chose as his favorite building in Wisconsin.
It’s not just a barn to Kruser
It’s pretty simple. They don't build things the way they used to.
That's especially true of anonymous agricultural buildings, the kind on country waysides or across the street from a new strip mall in a community that was once rural but is quickly becoming part of the suburban landscape, said Mark Kruser, an architect with Potter Lawson Inc., Madison.
Cox finds inspiration in the Wright way
When choosing his favorite building in Wisconsin, Tom Cox harkened back to his days as a young designer.
As an undergraduate student in Nebraska in the 1970s, he joined several of his classmates on a nationwide road tour of America's important buildings, a journey that took him to Frank Lloyd Wright's Wingspread home near Racine.
Johnson building impresses Cooper
Robert Cooper said he likes the way the S.C. Johnson Administration Building in Racine makes him feel like he's outside even after he walks in.
He also feels like he is submerged in a pond, looking up at lily pads silhouetted against the sunlight.
It's the idea of thinking about a building that works as a harmonious, special kind of sculpture," said Cooper, principal with Milwaukee-based Eppstein Uhen Architects Inc. "It has to do with what materials are used, the colors, textures, how light is introduced and, of course, (Frank Lloyd) Wright went to the next step and designed all the furniture in it too."
Oberbeck sees magic in sentry’s disappearing act
Sentry Insurance’s headquarters in Stevens Point is huge.
The 800,000-square-foot complex has a theater, a restaurant and a golf course. When the company embarked on its project, it excavated a lake and used the fill for construction.
But the size of the company's headquarters isn't what makes it David Oberbeck's favorite building in Wisconsin. For the senior project manager at Becher-Hoppe Associates Inc. in Wausau, the really amazing aspect of the facility is the way a structure so large can blend into its surroundings so seamlessly.
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."
There’s a story behind the construction of the First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Green Bay.
Back in the 1950s, Otto Kaap, a German immigrant who founded one of the most famous candy stores in Green Bay, essentially decided to invest his entire fortune into the construction of the church. He spared no expense, commissioning a 47-bell carillon from the Petit and Fritsen Bell Foundry of Holland and hiring a European master stone carver to work on site for months.
Grzeszczak likes warehouse’s purity
Buildings don’t get much more basic than the Central Steel and Wire Distribution Warehouse in Milwaukee.
And that's precisely why architect Paul Grzeszczak of Newcomb Construction Co. in Verona likes the building, including its "siting on a well-manicured sheet of grass" on South Sixth Street.
Waukesha County communities manage to keep their small-town flair while hosting glossy office buildings, snazzy retail plazas and large and spacious homes.
It's obvious the county is growing, and it's doing so despite tough economic times.
When translated, the word Waukesha means "by the little fox." But today, the city is anything but little.
Patti Wallner, president of the Waukesha Area Chamber of Commerce, finds it hard to conceal her enthusiasm about the area's growth.
When comparing Miller Park and Lambeau Field, the score in the game of life is 3-0.
Three ironworkers died during the construction of Miller Park, and an appeals court vacated the $94 million in punitive damages awarded their widows. Now, the state Supreme Court will make the call.
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