Tri-North keeps working for Discovery World

An empty space near Discovery World’s Challenge boat is ready to house a new exhibit.

Just about everyone else is gone.

Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin became mostly old news for the contractors, subs, architects and engineers when the project reached completion more than a year ago. For Tri-North Builders, the job continues.

“We’re building exhibits at various locations,” said Ralph Agner, Tri-North’s project manager on the job. “They have sketches and verbal directions, and they go to our guys and say, ‘Can you build this?’

“We’re very involved, and the exhibits are really cool. We’ve created this space, and it’s all interactive.”

Todd Showers, Tri-North’s superintendent, levels off a beam for a new Discovery World exhibit. Photos courtesy of Tri-North Builders Inc.

Tri-North arrived on site in May 2005 to work on Discovery World’s aquariums, Agner said. The contractor kept that going for most of the following summer, picking up a carpentry and general-trades contract along the way.

“In May 2006, the building was done, but we were starting to do things directly for Discovery World,” Agner said. “We did an office for [Wauwatosa-based Bartolotta Restaurant Group], and we did storage space. The electricians were still there, but that was it.”

As the contractor picked up more and more work, the job evolved into Tri-North essentially becoming the house contractor. Agner said his team picked up 80 projects in 2006 and 22 this year. Fifty of those, he said, were exhibit jobs.

Agner said one of his favorites is the watershed exhibit, which includes a suspended boat. For the exhibit, Tri-North built a wood skirt around the Great Lakes and created a ceiling that looks like the sky with water, thunder or fog coming out of it.

“My carpenters loved it,” he said. “They got to play with different materials and show off their craftsmanship. It took a lot of engineering to suspend the boat.”

As Tri-North heads into summer at Discovery World, the contractor is working on a lab near one of the aquariums that people can enter and feel like they’re underwater. There also are plans for a nuclear reactor exhibit.

“I’ve been there over a year, and it’s a constant thing,” Agner said. “We’re trying to get a log centered so it will spin. We had a car that was suspended.

“Their imagination is their limit right now.”

As for more concrete limits, Agner said he really can’t say when Tri-North will be done at Discovery World.

“I could guess August or September, but six months ago, I said April,” he said. “The building is only so big. I have to imagine that at some point it has to end. But there’s still a lot of space.”

— Chris Thompson