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Reuss Federal Plaza

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1983, Perkins and Will. 310 W. Wisconsin Ave.
  • (Photograph by Andrew Hope)
  • (Photograph by Andrew Hope)

Postmodern design reached Milwaukee in the 1980s with the Reuss Federal Building, a key part of Milwaukee’s downtown makeover. Built with the federal clout of longtime House Banking Committee chair and Milwaukee congressman Henry Reuss, the tower, with its bands of blue enameled steel and glass, is known locally as “that blue thing.” Two trapezoidal prisms pop out from the tower’s twelfth and thirteenth stories to break its large rectangular mass. Each face alternates the width of the blue enameled steel bands separating the mirrored glass curtain wall. In recent years, some federal agencies vacated their suites due to security concerns in such glass curtain high-rises following the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Marsha Weisiger et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

Matthews Brothers Building of Grand Avenue Mall
Bradley Symphony Center
Wisconsin Center (Midwest Airlines Center)
Hilton Milwaukee City Center (Schroeder Hotel)
Germania Building

Citation

Marsha Weisiger et al., "Reuss Federal Plaza", [Milwaukee, Wisconsin], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/WI-01-MI54.

Print Source

Buildings of Wisconsin

Buildings of Wisconsin, Marsha Weisiger and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2017, 96-97.

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