Modern living

AG puts Eastcastle Place back in the market

By Jennifer Pfaff

The Milwaukee Protestant Home had a choice: change with the times or watch the senior-living market pass by.

The leaders of the facility on Milwaukee's east side opted to keep pace with the newest trends in the field and, by extension, compete in a crowded marketplace.

"The Milwaukee Protestant Home had been delivering senior services since the latter half of the 19th century," said John Cronin, senior design architect at AG Architecture, the designer of the Eastcastle Place project. "Since the 1970s and '80s, continuing-care retirement communities have developed. A lot have sprung up on the greenfield sites outside the city.

"The Milwaukee Protestant Home wanted to get back in the market."

The campus, which was renamed Eastcastle Place, needed a major overhaul to conform to modern standards, but the task needed to respect the historical landmark status of the campus' original building. That 1800s building was one of several connected structures on the site that were built without any unifying architectural style.

"One of our goals in the redevelopment of this campus was, without copying the original architecture, to tie back to the original architecture of the landmark building and the neighborhood," Cronin said.

	Project Name: Eastcastle Place Location: Milwaukee Submitting Company: AG Architecture Inc., Wauwatosa General Contractor: The Bentley Company, Milwaukee Project Leaders: John Cronin, AG's design architect; Tracey Schnick, AG's project architect Architects: AG Architecture Inc., design architect; Kahler Slater Architects Inc., Milwaukee, architect of record Engineers: AG Architecture Inc., mechanical, electrical engineer; National Survey & Engineering, a division of R.A. Smith & Associates Inc., Brookfield, civil engineer; Pierce Engineers Inc., Milwaukee, structural engineer Owner: Milwaukee Protestant Home - Eastcastle Place Project Cost: $14 million Project Size: 142,685 square feet Start Date: December 2004 Completion Date: October 2006

The project leaders had to meet that goal while also meeting market demands for more independent-living apartments. So the team tore down a 1950s nursing home and replaced it with a four-story structure with underground parking and 59 apartments.

Losing the nursing home created a logistical nightmare, Cronin said. It was the functional hub for systems - steam, electricity, alarm systems, meal preparation and more - that served the entire campus, so everything was rerouted to allow for demolition.

With the old building out of the way, the design team worked on creating a new structure that could blend in with the campus and community. Sizes, colors, materials and design elements were drawn from surrounding buildings, and each side of the building is slightly different to best match the area it faces.

The project team incorporated an octagonal base, which is a feature found elsewhere in the neighborhood. A flat roof allowed for the creation of an extensive rooftop garden for residents.

"We're anticipating people will gather there for fireworks and things like that," Cronin said. "It's a very nice, lushly landscaped outdoor area."

Outdoor spaces were keys to tying the campus together. A southern-facing courtyard was created outside the one portion of the historic building that could not be seen from any street, exempting that area from regulations against altering its appearance, Cronin said.

"We were able to create a better urban courtyard while being sensitive to the historic construction of the existing building," he said.