During the course of my research I came across an article in Wired magazine from January which seems like it was written for me! The title of the issue was “Atoms and the New Bits” detailing how do-it-yourself has moved from software to hardware, i.e. people now have the capacity to make their own products and sell them worldwide without a huge investment in equipment – which is exactly one of the ideas for the Milwaukee Innovation Center.

From the article:

Tech Shop

In June, Local Motors will officially release the Rally Fighter, a $50,000 off-road (but street-legal) racer. The design was crowdsourced, as was the selection of mostly off-the-shelf components, and the final assembly will be done by the customers themselves in local assembly centers as part of a “build experience.” Several more designs are in the pipeline, and the company says it can take a new vehicle from sketch to market in 18 months, about the time it takes Detroit to change the specs on some door trim. Each design is released under a share-friendly Creative Commons license, and customers are encouraged to enhance the designs and produce their own components that they can sell to their peers.

Local Motors

Local Motors plans to release between 500 and 2,000 units of each model. It’s a niche vehicle; it won’t compete with the major automakers but rather fill in the gaps in the marketplace for unique designs. Rogers uses the analogy of a jar of marbles, each of which represents a vehicle from a major automaker. In between the marbles is empty space, space that can be filled with grains of sand — and those grains are Local Motors cars.

Read the whole article here: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/01/ff_newrevolution/all/1

Below is a preliminary rendering of the interior office space, and a couple photos I was playing with:

Preliminary Interior

Interior

Exterior

Below are the slide thumbnails of the presentation, or you can view the PDF if you prefer »

 

Thesis Claim

Milwaukee is in desperate need of and economic stimulus. Since the 1960s, Milwaukee has seen a steady decline in its manufacturing base and the replacements in the service industry has not earned much respect. Milwaukee’s global images was, and now is, manufacturing. We build motorcycles at Harley-Davidson, motors at Briggs and Stratton, and we brew beer at Miller. Creating highly innovative technologies in the city will encourage job growth and reverse the exodus to business parks in the suburbs. Milwaukee has the potential to be a leader in innovative industrial design and production. The best way to bring notoriety and investment to Milwaukee’s renewed innovative spirit in the 21st century is to build a signature educational and manufacturing facility to draw international attention. The exemplar project ideally will be located in a formerly prosperous, but presently distressed part of the city combining design and production under one roof to serve as an icon and a catalyst for future growth.

Abstract

What is a city? On the physical level it is a collection of buildings, roads and infrastructure allowing people, on the human level, to live, work and play within this physical context. Each city is unique with regard to size, quality, features, landmarks, history and more. Milwaukee is a city rooted in its industrial past and currently struggling to adapt to the post-industrial present. By most metrics, Milwaukee is struggling. Auto manufacturing jobs have left for foreign countries, not to return. Steel and metal fabrication has declined. Breweries have
consolidated or shut down with Miller as the exception, who now brews most of the legacy beers. The result is a number of missing teeth in the city landscape. These vacant and dilapidated lots disrupt the city, punching holes in the urban fabric. My goal for my thesis is to design a project which repairs this fabric with a new program emphasizing integrated project delivery by streamlining design and production into a single facility to begin to restore Milwaukee image of education, innovation and manufacturing dominance.

Below are the slide thumbnails of the presentation, or you can view the PDF here if you prefer »

 

The three programs can be successfully implemented on any of the three sites, but some sites lend themselves better to a particular project.

The three programs are fairly flexible and will be modified over the duration of the project to more accurately reflect the needs of Milwaukee’s industrial and technology community.

School of Freshwater Sciences

The first program combines the WATER Institute with the UWM School of Freshwater Sciences. The WATER (Wisconsin Aquatic Technology and Environmental Research) Institute is currently located on Greenfield Avenue, less than a block from the Solvay site. The School of Freshwater Sciences is a brand new program which encompasses what the WATER does and expands the school. As a result, the University is looking for new locations for the school. One of the current proposals places the school at the former Pieces of Eight restaurant location on Michigan Avenue between the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Discovery World center. The site is nice, but not suited for a large building as it would block the lake views and compete with the two other iconic buildings. My three proposed sites are much better suited for the program.

The School of Freshwater Sciences would require a building capable of holding 200 students, 50 faculty and 50 researchers within classrooms, lounge spaces, faculty offices, laboratories, a library/research center, computer lab and other general academic spaces. Additionally, given the unique program the school will have a dock to hold its ship, the 71’ Neeskay, a fleet of small watercraft, tanks to hold aquatic animals and research projects, and a fully equipped machine shop for constructing instruments and devices. Obviously the direct connection to the water is critical.

The program is probably best adapted to fit the Solvay site given the proximity to the existing building, but the Reed Street site would also work equally well. Because of the need for connection to a waterway, the Washington Street would not really work since it is essentially land-locked.

Environmental Remediation Company

The second program under consideration is a facility for an environmental remediation company. Environmental remediation is the process cleaning up contaminants in soil, air and water, something Milwaukee is certainly in need of. There are several companies in business doing environmental remediation, and Milwaukee could very easily support another as demand for redeveloping ‘brownfields’ increases as does the goal of making ‘green’ buildings: LEED credits are awarded for using contaminated sites.

An environmental remediation company would need a very large facility to house equipment for aerating soil, filtering water, and digesting or decomposing organic chemicals. The facility would also probably need a large leach field for imported soils. There are two primary techniques for clean-up, ex-situ and in-situ. Ex-situ methods involve excavation of affected soils and subsequent treatment at the surface, In-situ methods seek to treat the contamination without removing the soils. The environmental remediation company would serve as a base for a fleet of mobile trucks to go to remote sites to perform in-situ remediation. The facility would also take in contaminated soils and water and process it.

Any of the three sites would be suited for the environmental remediation program. Solvay is clearly the most contaminated and may be ideal as a ‘testing ground’ for new techniques and long-term experiments on its heavily contaminated soil and adjacent waterway. All three sites have easy access to railways for the importing of soil and water in hoppers and tankers, or by truck from the highways. Solvay and Reed Street are adjacent to waterways, and Washington Street is near enough to water that pipes of cleaned water can be discharged into the river.
The facility itself will require space for large tanks, hoppers for holding soil, beds to oxidize soils, and a system to contain any toxins released from the soil from being released into the air. The facility will also have offices, research laboratories, incubators for breeding specialized bacterial, greenhouses for raising ‘scrubbing’ plants and decontamination areas for workers and trucks.

Industrial Design School and Workshop

The third program option I am considering is an industrial design school and workshop. Given Milwaukee’s history of manufacturing, it would be beneficial to bring more industrial design activities back to the city. MIAD (Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design) and MSOE (Milwaukee School of Engineering) as well as UWM offer components of industrial design, but these options are somewhat limited compared to what UW-Madison and other institutions offer. The industrial design school would offer students classes in design and a workshop to produce student projects, but also would operate a business. In an economic climate where higher education institutions struggle to work within limited budgets, turning a profit would be a great way of subsidizing the school’s income.

The design school and workshop would be a full campus with housing and amenities for students in addition to classroom and work space. The school would support about 500 students and 50 faculty and staff positions. Students could live in the dormitories or off-campus. Parking would be provided for commuting students, as well as access to public transportation options. The faculty would have classrooms, workshops, lecture theatres, gallery, faculty offices, business offices and production facilities. There would be a wide variety of tools used, such as plasma cutters for sheet materials, rapid prototyping for development models, a foundry for metal castings, woodworking tools, ceramics and many others. Sustainability would be emphasized and the campus itself ideally would be ‘green.’

Any of the sites would work perfectly for the industrial design school as all have access to various forms of public transportation, are relatively nearby to residential areas for housing, and have large areas for parking and green-space. Reed Street additionally has the advantage of visibility from the city and freeway, and Washington Street will benefit from its proximity to industry and has the opportunity for interesting topographic solutions thanks to the split level roadway and rail bed.