Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb

Shoppes at Wyndham Village Target Plan Commission approval as reported by Community Newspapers

Posted on Franklinnow.com:

Planners say new design is on Target

But water issues remain in proposed development

By John Neville
Staff Writer

Posted: Sept. 12, 2007

The Plan Commission has approved a plan that tweaks architectural elements of a proposed Target store at the Shoppes at Wyndham Village.

The panel voted 5-1 to approve the Target site plan for a 125,000-square-foot store, following months of pressure by commission members and community residents who urged revisions of the widely criticized architectural design submitted to the panel in late May.

Commissioner Kevin Haley was the lone "no" vote.

The discount retailer will be the primary anchor of the Shoppes of Wyndham Village, an eight-building commercial development on 38.7 acres near Highway 100 and Drexel Avenue. Mark E. Carstensen, a Franklin resident, is the developer.

'Nothing like this'

At least two major revisions, as well as tweaking last week and at the commission meeting Sept. 6, resulted in a design Target architect Thomas Lasley described as top-notch.

"There's nothing like this in Wisconsin or the 1,600 Target stores in the United States," Lasley said.

Opponents voiced negative comments at an Aug. 23 commission meeting about the Target design not matching the architectural level of other Shoppes buildings - particularly the nearby co-anchor Sendik's Food Store.

Since then, Target architects approximated a Sendik's tower entry design but did not replicate that feature.

Other changes to the original plan include "diapering" brickwork beneath a tower-like canopy next to a partly glass entryway. The color palette of the Target store was beefed up with red brick and stone ledge as well as slate. Bump-outs, beams and lintels also have been added.

"The whole front elevation is all brick and stone now," Lasley said.

Commissioner George Torres said the revisions and tweaking were worth the effort.

"We're not difficult," he said. "We just have high standards."

Commissioner Shari Hanneman said: "They listened to what we had to say, they listened to what we wanted. I think what we have before us tonight is very comfortable."

Mayor Thomas Taylor, also the commission chairman, said community reaction to the latest Target revision - posted on the city's Web site - was overwhelmingly positive.

Not everyone was satisfied.

Haley appreciated Target officials' hard work but said he could not support the site plan for the entire development, which is zoned civic center district and conservancy.

"I have a problem with the site plan," he said. "The massing of the buildings and the fact that some of the third and fourth (buildings) are very plain."

Watered-down issue

While the architectural elements passed the test, the development still faces other challenges - this time tied to wetlands in the development area.

The Milwaukee County Conservation Coalition alleges that Carstensen, the developer, lacks a valid Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit and violates the federal Clean Water Act of 1972.

A letter to Carstensen, signed by Milwaukee attorney and MCCC counsel Dennis M. Grzezinski, represents a 60-day notice of intent to sue the developer in federal court.

Grzezinski said during the 60-day period, the MCCC "welcomes discussion that would resolve this matter without litigation."

A letter dated Sept. 4 signed by lawyer Donald P. Gallo, who represents Carstensen in the matter, disputes the notice.

"All of MCCC's claims are false and contrived in an attempt to utilize federal environmental laws to delay and financially harm the Wyndham project. MCCC knows that its claims are false and its evidentiary basis nonexistent," Gallo said.

Kristen Wilhelm, a member of the city's Environmental Commission, said she did not understand commission approval.

"If they're agreeing to it, they're facilitating breaking state law," Wilhelm said.

Franklin Planning Manager Joel Dietl said he understood Carstensen has secured all necessary state Department of Natural Resource permits. (City officials say two wetland areas on the site are temporarily protected by fencing with eight or nine more wetlands permanently removed from development.)

A group of residents is challenging the state on at least one of those to the design permits.

 

John Neville can be reached at  jneville@cninow.com or (262) 446-6609.

More notes on the Target Store approval

Last Thursday the Plan Commission voted 5-1 to approve the plan for Target’s 125,000 square foot store at Shoppes at Wyndham Village. I heard no surprises after reviewing a tape of the meeting, but did find some of the comments by Target Architect Thomas Lasley very telling:

"I told my team, ‘Throw away your preconceptions. Let’s take a very hard look at the Sendik’s adjacent retail that was approved two weeks ago.’

"We wanted to be compatible with the rest of the site in materials, picking up on the architectural language – more of a traditional language than what we showed two weeks ago. So we have, in my mind, radically changed the architecture of the Target store.

You are likely shaking your head, thinking "Shouldn't that have been self-evident from the beginning?"

Well, no, it wasn't, and isn't. When a Target or any big box comes into a community, they are looking to spend the least amount of time, effort and capital possible to put in a profitable location. The fact of the matter is, people will come to a half-ass Target as surely as they'll come to a nice-looking Target. Where you make a difference is in how that Target augments, enlivens, and energizes (socially and economically) the surrounding businesses and neighborhoods.

The mayor and Planning Manager Joel Dietl both made reference to the Target in Davis, California that I've previously mentioned in this blog. Joel erroneously supposed that it was the specific Davis Target building that had so much appeal. It's not the specific building in Davis, it's the approach they take to development. Consider this line from an article in the Davis Enterprise:

From the outset, the City of Davis had a series of very specific conditions for the project...

That's the key! Target immediately sensed a focussed community and administration in Davis and quickly upped the ante, unilaterally proposing even more aesthetic and environmental improvements.

It's up to city administration--the planning staff and plan commission--to create and maintain standards. Unfortunately, Franklin's Plan Staff reports to the Office of Economic Development, which hamstrings their efforts; their goals are not consistent with one another in many crucial ways.

Developers, left to their own devices, will create a nation of strip malls; they will only create community- and economy-positive projects when directed to do so. In this case, in service to a better financial outcome for the investment group, developer Mark Carstensen simply ceded to Target their entire building and property to do with what they wish, which has doomed the site design of the Shoppes at Wyndham Village and severely constrained ongoing tenant opportunities (more on that in an upcoming post).

In the end, Target didn't "radically" change anything. But the fact remains that Target eventually responded to the needs and requirements of this particular site after  developer Mark Carstensen virtually washed his hands of his involvement with "their part of the development." With the addition of a few inexpensive details, the store is now, at least, a closer fit to the rest of the site - - thanks to pressure exerted by the city's plan commission (and after the city's Director of City/Economic Development, Doug Wheaton, had already profusely praised Target's initial anemic effort; this is why plan staff should not report to the Director of City/Economic Development).

Credit where credit is due

Having closely followed this project from the very beginning, I will say with great certainty that none of the Target improvements would have occurred without the ongoing efforts of blogger Greg Kowalski. While I occasionally wince at his sensitivity to the slings and arrows of his fellow Franklinnow.com bloggers, and I disagree with his laser-like focus on the cosmetics of Target's exterior versus what I feel is the far greater problem of "Shoppes" terrible site plan and near-certain upcoming tenant problems associated with having a Target dominate the landscape, Greg kept his specific issue in front of the public and city administration and changed the conversation regarding what Franklin is willing to accept from Target.

Whether you agree or disagree with Greg, you cannot deny that the language and approach of Franklin's planning administration toward Target at the end of the process was vastly different--and vastly more effective--than the "just happy to have you here, Mr. Big Box" attitude that reigned at the beginning of this process. Greg made a positive difference.

Also, Mayor Tom Taylor must be commended for accommodating the concerns of Kowalski and other residents throughout the process. As he noted in remarks at the Plan Commission meeting, he ran for alderman and then mayor on a pro-economic development platform that, taken at face value, would preclude his consideration of any opinions that arguably hinder an incoming big box store regardless of its intended site design, architecture or long-term community impact. You would be hard-pressed to perceive in the decisions he made along the way (exercising his discretion to allow public comment, attending meetings with citizen groups, etc.) any sort of bias.

On the Plan Commission, Kevin Haley has been an ongoing beacon of wisdom. Never afraid to express the truth, no matter how unpopular, his was the sole dissenting vote against approving Target's building. After praising Target's efforts and execution, Haley said he would nonetheless have to oppose the motion:

My concerns are with the big picture, the quality. The Civic Center District guidelines tell us that this is supposed to set a higher standard. This is the standard by which all of Franklin will be evaluated in terms of architecture, site planning, many amenities. You did a great job on spiffing up the building, but as I tried to make apparent in our previous meetings, I have issues with the site plan, with the massing of the buildings, the fact that many of the third and fourth sides are very plain.

Haley is not soothed by a pretty facade; he's aware of the root of the site plan problem: Everything is built around the self-sufficient Target. This will ultimately be the undoing of the entire development as a true public space and commercial success beyond the Target parking lot border.

Mayor Taylor noted after Haley's comments:

Commissioner Haley, I’ve said it before -- I very much respect that you are sticking to your guns and principles. And I understand that you’ve made it no secret for some time that perhaps this could be done or that could be done. I do appreciate your position, and I also very much appreciate you being a plan commissioner.

As should we all.

Shoppes at Wyndham Village Target Store is approved

At last night's Plan Commission Meeting (which I could not attend), the newly-tweaked Target design was approved with a 5-1 vote. Thanks to Greg Kowalski for the jpgs, which he posted on his Franklin Development News blog. They can also be seen on the City of Franklin website.

More after I listen to a tape of the meeting.

Here's the previous design:

Shoppes at Wyndham Village: Mark Carstensen notified of "intent to sue"

Back in mid-July I wondered whether Mark Carstensen might have ignored a few permits in his haste to break ground. I guess now we'll find out.

The Milwaukee County Conservation Coalition (MCCC) has notified Mark Carstensen and Mark Carstensen Construction, Inc. of their intent to sue him and his companies "for violations of Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“WPDES”) permit No. WI-S067831-3, issued pursuant to Wis. Stat. ch. 283 and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 (“Clean Water Act” or “the Act”), 33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq., and for discharging construction site storm water runoff into waters of the United States without a valid WPDES permit, after 60 days from the postmarked date of this letter."

The MCCC is "a nonprofit Wisconsin corporation dedicated to the protection, restoration and enhancement of Milwaukee County’s natural areas and the waters that affect them."

The Franklin Plan Commission discusses The Shoppes' Target Store architecture at tonight's meeting.

Entire "Intent to sue" letter is in the extended.

Recent tax stories show where politicians' true loyalty is

Looking at taxing nonprofits while Wal-Mart and their ilk continue to skate by free?

A recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel letter to the editor hits the nail on the head:

Our political system is the problem

This letter is in response to the Sept. 1 editorial "Wal-Mart's loophole." I find it hypocritical that we have this dilemma with regard to paying taxes by one of the nation's largest companies and that it is being addressed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Why not report the real story of why we have this problem?

We as a nation have ignored the warning message from President Washington, when he left office more than 200 years ago, against the rise of political parties. He said they are self-serving and ignore the needs of the people.

The current practice in the United States is that wealthy corporations provide millions of dollars to Democratic and Republican candidates seeking political office or to remain in office. The elected politicians who receive that money are obligated to provide laws and privilege to those who provide it. They are not dedicated to the people of the United States but to the wealthy corporations that really benefit.

As long as we have this current corrupt political practice, we will witness games being played by lawyers and politicians regarding taxes paid by wealthy corporations. We are actually fulfilling what the Bible says: The love of money is the root of all evil and brings with it many sorrows.

Jonathan S. Johns
Oak Creek

See also:

Paul Soglin: "Your Wisconsin Tax Hell: Manufactured by WMC"

"Scamming the system" - More about corporate tax abuse

Property taxes: "Why am I paying so much?" PART 2

mid coast views: "Costco Takes the High Road to Grafton!"

Michael Rosen has an excellent blog called mid coast views that I discovered via James Rowen's Political Environment (that's how the web works!). Since Costco might be looking at Franklin for a new location, it should be noted that while the company is a big box, Costco is not an evil empire ala Wal-Mart. Read Rosen's insights here.

Excerpt:

... The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports: ”The employees seem more helpful at Costco.”

And why are Costco's employees more engaged? Perhaps because they average $17 an hour, while Wal-Marts’ average $10. And unlike Wal-mart’s employees, 92% of Costco employees can afford the company’s healthcare benefits.

Costco employees earn more because they have a union-the Teamsters that represents 13,800 of the company’s 127,000 employees. That’s only 17% of Costco’s total workforce. But union representation creates a ripple effect that helps set labor standards for all Costco employees.

Costco’ labor agreements lock in wage and benefits packages that are the highest in the grocery and discount retail industries. And Costco passes on similar compensation packages to its non-union workers.

Costco’s executive management recognizes that Wal-Mart/Sam's Club competes based on low prices and low wages-a low road corporate strategy. They recognize that in the labor market, like all markets, you get what you pay for. So Wal-Mart’s low wages attract less skilled and motivated employees. The result is low levels of service.

So while Costco’s prices are roughly equivalent, it competes on the basis of service and productivity. Costco attracts more skilled and dedicated employees by paying them fairly. The result is better service and higher productivity.

As Costco CEO Jim Senegal has said: “We pay much better than Wal-Mart. That’s not altruism. It’s good business.”

Link: mid coast views: Costco Takes the High Road to Grafton!.

Subsidizing Sprawl: $25 million freeway interchange deemed "crucial" to large upscale shopping center at Pabst Farms

James Rowen says it best at The Political Environment:

That's one of the distortions caused by the rush to build The Road To Sprawlville: public money is used to subsidize development that pushes the economy farther from already-built business communities - - with merchants and residents in the losing communities knowing that some of their tax money is paying for their demise.

Mall supporters are touting its revenue production for state and local collections, so the message to Waukesha County and local Oconomowoc taxpayers is this:

Shop t'il you drop and help pay off your interchange investment.

Nearby Jefferson - already facing an impending Wal-Mart SuperCenter - will feel this.

Freeway deal struck for Pabst Farms mall

Oconomowoc, developer, state, county to pay for interchange

By AMY RINARD
arinard@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Sept. 3, 2007

Oconomowoc - Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas is to unveil today an agreement on a $25 million freeway interchange deemed crucial to the development of a large upscale shopping center at Pabst Farms.

Debate over who would pay for the interchange had cast doubt over whether it would be built.

But Vrakas is to announce that he worked out the agreement to share the cost of building a full diamond interchange, complete with four roundabouts, at I-94 and County Highway P in far western Waukesha County. It would funnel shoppers into the mall.

"This development with a major national mall coming in would be a huge economic center for western Waukesha County," Vrakas said.

"I'm proposing to partner with the state, the City of Oconomowoc, as well as the developer to handle the safe movement of vehicles out there."

The agreement calls for the county and Pabst Farms Development Inc., owner and manager of the 1,500-acre development near I-94 and Highway 67, to contribute $1.75 million each toward the interchange project.

Another $400,000 would come out of city property tax revenue paid by stores and other commercial and industrial buildings built at Pabst Farms. That revenue would be segregated, until all project costs are paid for, in a fund to be used for public improvements in the Pabst Farms tax incremental financing district.

The rest of the funding for the interchange would come from the state Department of Transportation, out of its Southeast Freeway Rehabilitation Program, said Dewayne Johnson, director of the Southeast Region of the department.

"We're pretty encouraged with the cooperation going on and with people talking about how to deal cooperatively to advance the schedule for building the interchange," he said.

'It will pay off'

Norm Cummings, Waukesha County director of administration, said construction of the interchange is crucial for mall developers.

"Before the developer will agree to come here, they needed assurance that there is a safe interchange to get customers there," he said.

The potential economic benefits of the mall to the county, the city and the state were lucrative enough to get all the parties to the table to work out a plan to pay for construction of the interchange, he said.

State sales tax revenue from the mall has been estimated at $15 million a year. The city, the county and the Oconomowoc School District would reap the rewards of an increased property tax base. And the revenue should come sooner than expected, with the end of the Pabst Farms tax incremental financing program anticipated in 2014 or 2015, a year earlier than originally planned.

"It will pay off for the county, for the city, and there's no question it will pay off for the state," Cummings said of the mall.

The county's share of the interchange cost would be paid out of surplus funds accumulated the last five years from savings on capital projects, he said, noting that no new county taxes are needed to pay for the interchange. He also said that no projects have been scrapped or put on hold as a result of designating funds for the interchange.

After General Growth Properties announced plans last year for the 184-acre, 1 million-square-foot Pabst Farms Town Centre, intended to attract shoppers from a broad swath of Wisconsin, local and state officials scrambled to design and figure out how to pay for the interchange.

In the 1990s, department analysts projected an expansion of the I-94/Highway P interchange for 2012.

Last month, during a public information meeting on the interchange project, department officials said that if funding was approved, construction could start in the spring and be completed in 2010. Developers have said the mall could open in the fall of 2010.

"For years, we have known there would be development out there; what has accelerated is the size and scope of the development," Richard Bolte, county public works director, said of the mall.

"The intensity of this is what's changed significantly."

Theater, 2 hotels

General Growth Properties, the second-largest developer of malls in the country and the owner of Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa, has proposed a mall including a multi-screen cinema and two hotels.

The main section of Pabst Farms Town Centre would be an enclosed multistory structure with two or three large anchor stores; two smaller anchor stores, such as a bookstore; and 100 to 120 smaller shops.

Another part of the complex, west of the enclosed mall, would be an open-air mall with small one-story shops and sidewalks.

A 16-screen movie theater and restaurants are planned east of the enclosed mall.

A 44-acre parcel east of the cinema would be the site of retailers that operate stand-alone big-box stores.

Highway P, known locally as Sawyer Road, is east of the big-box store area. The interchange would allow motorists to get on and off I-94 there, and plans call for an intersection with a road leading into the mall complex to be built on Highway P.

Vrakas' plan, included in his 2008 capital budget, must win approval from the County Board.

Board approval also will be required for the memorandum of understanding that outlines details of the agreement involving the state, the county, the city and Pabst Farms Development.

Vrakas said he was confident of board approval for the funding plan because the cost of the interchange would be shared and the economic benefits of the mall would be huge.

"I think we have a proposal that meets the needs of the county and the taxpayers," he said.

How good neighborhood design can reduce drunk driving

One of the advantages of traditional neighborhood design you don't often hear touted - great for safe beer-drinking.

The neighborhood I grew up in was like this; people could easily walk home from a friend's house or the nearby bar (Loppnow's, Shady's, B&R's, etc.). Everything began to go out of whack when one of my parents' circle of friends moved "out there" (to a new outlying subdivision) and could no longer take part in the informal porch gatherings - - as soon as it became "formal" (i.e. get in the car and travel), the gatherings gradually ceased. The neighborhood is poorer place as a result.

From the beer appreciation site fermentarium.com:

You want to head out and have a beer (or two—three) with your buddies, but there’s a problem: you live in the suburbs, so here comes the rounds of “Who’s going to drive?”.  Standard suburban design, with housing separated from retail and office uses, forces people to drive for their every need, no matter how small.  One glass of wine in a nice establishment involves a minimum 10 minute car ride in most of suburbia, and any more to drink requires the presence of a designated driver. But things are changing, a neighborhood planning movement called new urbanism is creating communities all across the U.S. with design features that reduce the risk of drunk driving, so you can live in the suburbs and drink your beer too!

Promoting Community

30 to 40 adults stand talking in a small neighborhood park, their conversation knots are overlaid by the delighted shouts of almost as many kids carousing like dog packs in the warm summer’s twilight.  They are all neighbors. Every Friday night, residents of the new urbanist community  Bradburn Village in Westminster, Colorado gather for their weekly park party.  Adults socialize over beer and wine while the kids play together.   Bradburn is designed to encourage social interaction among neighbors, and judging by the packed park parties and the incredible number of social events here, it works.

Every home in Bradburn includes a large front porch—not just a token 2 foot concrete stoop.  Garages are all in the back, and homes here also have very small setbacks (the distance between the house and the sidewalk, or front yard), meaning the porches sit right above the sidewalks.  This means people sitting on their front porches easily see neighbors walking by, and they stop to talk, creating a community bond that is so elusive in most traditional suburban neighborhoods. 

Other community features that encourage social interaction among neighbors include  public spaces such as the many pocket parks—every home in the development is a 5 minute walk from one of these green spaces—wide sidewalks, and an interconnected street grid (no cul-de-sacs) that makes the community very pedestrian friendly.   As a result of these design features, Bradburn’s residents all know each other, and many have become close, meaning if you want to socialize with your friends over a few drinks,  you just wander on down to the park or walk 5 minutes to your buddy’s home. 

Walking Distance to Bars and Restaurants

Because of zoning laws in the suburbs of America, it’s actually illegal to build residences too close to bars and restaurants.  Zoning laws in most suburban areas dictate single use for different portions of land: residences here, offices here, and retail here, with buffers (usually huge, ugly walls) between.  The most beloved places in America however, don’t follow this pattern, they mix uses close together, so that it’s possible to walk to many different things directly from home.  Most of these places were developed before the car dominated the lives of Americans—San Francisco, New York, Georgetown, Charlotte.  New urbanism (which is actually just old urbanism applied to single use zoned areas) revives the idea of mixed uses in the same neighborhood, something that is currently pretty rare outside urban areas.

Downtown Bradburn

Residents of Bradburn Village for example, are a 5-10 minute walk from 3 different bars and over 15 restaurants, with more to come as their downtown area is developed. New urbanist communities mix retail, office, and residences all in the same development, so if you want to get a beer or glass of wine out, you don’t have to drive. 

Access to Public Transit

The voters in the city of Denver, Colorado approved a sales tax increase in 2004 to support the construction of more than 100 miles of commuter train to connect the metro area and the nearby communities of Boulder, Louisville, and Longmont.  Communities are springing up all along future proposed stops for this rail line, providing residents of these areas an opportunity to live in close walking distance to exceptional mass transit.  These developments, often referred to as Transit Oriented Developments (TOD) are also popping up in different places across the nation such as Salt Lake City, Utah.  The new urbanist community of Daybreak will have two light rail stops as part of a recently approved extension of a light rail system.

These different neighborhood design features have one goal in common: to reduce the need for driving.  Residents of these communities no longer need to spend significant amounts of time bargaining with their buddies on whose turn it is to be designated driver for the evening—everyone can join in the libations without fear, and if that isn’t progress, what is?   

 

Franklin's new - but hidden - gem

Antoine Predock's new Indian Community School here in Franklin is getting high praise indeed. It's just unfortunate that this wonderful structure isn't in a well-trafficked area where it could help define Franklin.

See also:
Audio link to Whitney Gould's interview with the architect
Slide show of additional photos by Kristyna Wentz-Graff

Honoring ancestry, landscape

Posted: Sept. 2, 2007

Spaces Whitney Gould E-MAIL

Franklin - As it zigs and zags across rolling terrain, its russet limestone skin deepening color in the rain, the new Indian Community School is an eye-popping departure from its modest, hemmed-in predecessor on Milwaukee's W. State St.

New Mexico architect Antoine Predock's ground-hugging building - his first commission in Wisconsin - is at one with its rural setting, following the contours of the land and welcoming the outside in. If Frank Lloyd Wright were alive today, I suspect he would be smiling at much of what the pioneering Predock has achieved here.

The school, at 10405 W. St. Martins Road, just off Loomis Road, opened last week,drawing 350 children of American Indian ancestry from kindergarten through eighth grade. It's also a community center. For a building this big - 160,000 square feet - it is remarkably human in scale and, for the most part, spatially easy to read.

It's also full of beguiling surprises, starting with the form itself: a long, angular meander softened by sensuous curves.

"The roll of the site dictated the design," Paul Fehlau, Predock's associate in charge, told me.

Then there is the rich palette of materials. The rugged limestone cladding, quarried near Dubuque, Iowa, is mixed with broad swaths of copper shingles that have already weathered to a rusty purple. When these varied surfaces are splashed with sunlight, they have a magical allure. A seamed-metal roof, underlain with pine, swoops, dips and undulates across 100 different elevations.

The windows are equally unpredictable, ranging from big rectangles and bands of clerestories to V shapes and canted L's that parallel the slopes alongside them.

The entrance opens onto a vast gathering space with soaring columns of white pine from the Menominee Indian Reservation in the North Woods and a capacious fireplace set into one wall. The largely transparent rear wall, like all of the classroom spaces, looks out onto 200 emerald acres interspersed with oaks, cottonwoods, meadows and wetlands.

Polished limestone floors are inset with cast-bronze medallions that evoke the phases of the moon and slender strips of bronze that mimic the flight patterns of migrating birds. These beautiful details were designed by one of Predock's talented collaborators, Chris Cornelius, a member of the Oneida Nation who teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning.

There are other inspired touches: jutting balconies that offer sweeping panoramas; red cherry floors and doors; a drum-shaped amphitheater with a sunlike copper dome, from which pine strips radiate; a "Place of Nations" room for relaxation, edged with plantings and a Cornelius-designed copper water trough meant to suggest the Mississippi River.

In a phone interview from his offices in Albuquerque, Predock recalled immersing himself in tribal culture, starting with a trip to the Menominee Reservation, in order to design a building that would connect urban Indian children with their heritage.

"The land, the earth, in their cosmology is a huge fundamental grounding," he said

Predock, who won the American Institute of Architects' highest honor, the Gold Medal, in 2006, said he hoped the building would serve as a model of achievement by "people who have been kicked around" and are now "asserting their presence, their resilience."

Jackie Schellinger, the school's legal counsel, is overseeing the project. She said the goal here is to teach Indian children to "thrive in the modern world" by encouraging interaction with their elders and promoting values such as "love, respect, courage, truthfulness."

The architecture itself offers lessons in the skillful use of metaphor, honesty in materials and sensitivity to site.

But I have a few concerns about this otherwise admirable project. One is its distance - about 25 minutes - from much of the American Indian population in Milwaukee. Schellinger admits that bus transportation costs will rise substantially, but she says that the school has attracted children from Oak Creek, Franklin and other southern suburbs, and the gains in environmental amenities outweigh the costs.

Maybe, but if the project is to be sustainable, it has to be accessible. Keep your fingers crossed on this one.

And it's regrettable that the budget of more than $50 million wasn't enough to incorporate Predock's original plan for sod roofs, which could have helped cut heating and cooling costs and reduce runoff.

A last cavil is that the entrance seems a bit underarticulated. But even Wright was known to hide his front doors. Perhaps finding this one will become part of the journey of discovery in a building so full of unexpected pleasures.

E-mail to  wgould@journalsentinel.com or call (414) 224-2358.

Keeping downtown alive in the face of Wal-Mart

"Just one mile from the city's heart, ground has been broken for a Wal-Mart Supercenter...".

Rather than roll over and die, the small community of Jefferson, Wisconsin looks for ways to revitalize and energize its city center before the outward pull begins.

"There is going to be growth here," says Gary Myers, the city's mayor. "The demographics are too powerful. The question is: Are you going to manage it or let it happen in a random fashion? Our goal is to manage it, beautify and enhance what we have instead of letting the growth take over us."

This is definitely one to watch.

Seeking best of new, old worlds

Jefferson's big development plans center around rivers, downtown

By BILL GLAUBER
bglauber@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Sept. 2, 2007

Jefferson - From his perch behind the prescription counter at The Drug Store on Main St., pharmacist Bob Niebler has spent decades viewing the life and times of his hometown.

He watched as old industries such as Schweiger Furniture thrived then closed, saw local stores shut down. He endured the hard knocks of recent years as a bitter strike hit the local Tyson Foods plant and a fight over a new Wal-Mart store led to the recall of an alderman.

Niebler still has high hopes for Jefferson, hopes embodied by a proposed downtown and riverfront development plan that just might lure people back to city's center, not just to work and shop, but to live in homes, condos and apartments.

"It's time we open whatever potential we have," says Niebler, 59. "Every community in the state is trying to reinvent itself."

Jefferson's reinvention will be one to watch. It's not just about land and commerce, homes and apartments - it's about retaining a sense of place and community even as economic changes wash over the area.

The city with 7,787 residents sits along the Rock and Crawfish rivers, about midway between Milwaukee and Madison.

In many ways, it's a self-contained place, the Jefferson County seat, with courts, government offices and close-knit neighborhoods.

But it also looks outward, couples commuting to jobs in Milwaukee or Madison and newcomers lured by relatively inexpensive housing prices.

Change is inevitable.

A planned bypass along state Highway 26 will likely divert some truck and car traffic from downtown.

Just one mile from the city's heart, ground has been broken for a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

And St. Coletta of Wisconsin, which provides programs and services for adults with developmental and other disabilities, has a 174-acre parcel for sale on the city's eastern side.

"There is going to be growth here," says Gary Myers, the city's mayor. "The demographics are too powerful. The question is: Are you going to manage it or let it happen in a random fashion? Our goal is to manage it, beautify and enhance what we have instead of letting the growth take over us."

What's intriguing about Jefferson's development plan - which still must be approved by the City Council - is that it mirrors what is happening in larger cities across America, including Milwaukee.

The city is determined to open up its waterfront, to turn it into a residential and recreational front door instead of a back door of industry.

"We're trying to maintain this sense of small community, that quality of life that people cherish," Myers says. "We don't want to spoil that."

Several sites on or near Rock River are targeted for revitalization. Development plans include apartments for seniors, condos, townhouses, single-family homes, parking, an arts incubator and a riverwalk that would also embrace the Crawfish River. The city is hoping to lure developers to the sites. In all, there could be as many as 300 residential units built in the next few years - that's if the housing slump turns around.

At a recent public meeting, objections were raised by a few residents whose property would look on to the proposed riverwalk route. Some business owners grumbled about whether they will get help in fixing up their storefronts.

But there are already building blocks to kick-start Jefferson's future development as it tries to grow from the inside-out.

A swath of land just outside downtown now houses the county Highway Department site. Old buildings and piles of salt could be replaced with townhomes and duplexes looking right onto the Rock River.

Main St. has seen better days, but many of the façades are just waiting to be revitalized to bring the town back to its full 19th century splendor.

Niebler's drugstore, for instance, retains a Victorian look and a homey charm. Wal-Mart might be moving into the city, but Niebler is not surrendering.

"We're fighting the biggest (variety store) footprint one mile from this location," he says.

"I've lived change ever since I've been in business," adds Niebler, who started working at the pharmacy as a clerk in 1962. "I still believe the community needs the presence of a local community pharmacy, and I intend to fill that need."

Bill Brandel, 58, a former mayor who taught generations of Jefferson's children as a high school history teacher, is helping guide the project as a member of the Redevelopment Authority.

"We're going to see some amazing changes in our little town," Brandel says.

Brandel and others here have seen past redevelopment plans come and go. But this one, he says, is different. The vision is clearer, to return the city to its riverfront roots. And the aim is just a little bit higher, to revive Main St. and the downtown.

"If you're going to have a vital downtown, you have to have people living downtown, whether it's in Milwaukee or in Jefferson," he says. "This project moves people downtown."