US Bank is apple of West’s eye

BLUEPRINT Building: US Bank, Milwaukee Completed: 1973 Builder: Hunzinger Construction Co., Brookfield Architect: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, Chicago Office Biggest Fan: Michael West, Computerized Structural Design Inc., Bayside

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.

“The reason I like it is, No. 1, being a structural engineer as well as an architect, I understand why there are those horizontal belt trusses. I like the fact that the architect chose to include them in the design of the building.

“What those belt trusses do is, say the wind is blowing from the North and the building leans to the South. ... They keep it from shifting. It's structure that's doing a job ... and it reads into the architecture.

“I like it because it's a building of its era. It's sort of the last of its kind. Buildings started to look different after the First Wisconsin building. Things got interesting.

Photo by Candace Doyle

“So the First Wisconsin is a very restrained building. Some people think it's so restrained it's boring.”

West pointed to the Federal Building in downtown Milwaukee with its blue glass as a building that is definitely not restrained. The Calatrava addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum is also not restrained, but it's neighbor, the War Memorial, is.

West also likes the US Bank building because of the high-rise's prominence. (Skyscraper.com says the building is “one of the engineering marvels of Fazlur Khan, the famous structural engineer of the John Hancock Center and Sears Tower in Chicago.) When flying into Milwaukee, the building says you're home.

“I like it because it's kind of the best of a kind. You know you're in Milwaukee when you see it.”

- Candace Doyle