Wisconsin Builder | Top Projects of 2002

Pumped Up

Engberg brews winning formula

By Sean Ryan

Designers who converted Milwaukee's old lakefront pump house into a coffee shop brewed up a blend of art, business, environmental conscience and enough sewage to clog a river.

"Basically, they built this thing in 1888 to pump lake water into the river so it would flow again when it was bogged down with raw sewage," said Bill Robison, senior associate for project architect Engberg Anderson Design Partnership Inc., Milwaukee. "How nasty is that?"

The aging Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District pump house offered a unique business opportunity because the shoreline of Lake Michigan is protected parkland. After Milwaukee city planners tossed out the idea to convert it into a coffeehouse, Alterra Coffee Roasters jumped at the chance, Robison said.

The pump house was in decent shape after its early 1990s restoration, Robison said, so the project team tried to change as little as possible to preserve the building's history. The building shell went mostly untouched, and the pump is still there and still operates.

"For the most part, it really just came down to not touching the building," Robison said. "Once you took out all the junk that was in it before, it was really just a big empty brick box. The building kind of tells its own story just by the history left in place."

Pro environment

Project Name: MMSD Interpretive Center/Alterra on the Lake
Location: Milwaukee
Submitting Company: Engberg Anderson Design Partnership Inc., Milwaukee
General Contractor/Construction Manager: Dahlman Construction, Milwaukee
Architect: Engberg Anderson Design Partnership Inc., Milwaukee
Engineer: Harwood Engineering Consultants Ltd., Milwaukee (Structural); IBC Engineering Services Inc., Waukesha (Electrical); Air Care Inc., Mayville (Mechanical)
Owner: Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, Milwaukee
Project Cost: $725,000
Start Date: April 2002
Completion Date: October 2002

Another overriding theme was transforming the building from its stinky beginnings into an environmentally friendly place. The building is heated by air pumped up from an underground river tunnel, and builders from Milwaukee-based Dahlman Construction used recycled materials for the renovation, Robison said.

"They really wanted to go as far as they possibly could in incorporating the green aspects of the building," he said. "We took the sliding door in there out of a tannery on Water Street. A bunch of us actually went down there and dragged this door out of the building."

Robison said the building could easily meet the green-building standards dictated in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System, but they couldn't afford the $20,000 bill to commission an independent engineer to inspect it. He said the $725,000 project cost was straining the public-private budget already, but he hoped enough cash could be generated to get the certification in the future.

The building really gets its flavor from contributions from artist Joe Niedzialkowski, who collaborated with designers from the start on signage, counter designs, menu boards, a sculpture and a mural. Robison said his input during the design phases blurred any distinction between art and architecture.

"There is a real gray line between what was architectural and what was art," he said. "That's what made it fun."

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