• News
• Fringe
• Sports
• Editorial
• UH Section
• Archives

• About
• Join the Post
• Contact
• Advertising

• E-mail
• Print
• Text size:

“Neighborhood groups would like to see the university do cooperative outreach with neighborhood associations” – Joe Klein, Cambridge Woods Neighborhood Association President

The Mandel Group Inc. hosted a final working session with East Side neighbors Wednesday Nov. 12, giving residents a final chance to voice their concerns before the project’s formal public approval stage begins.

The meeting highlighted building and site design plans for the proposed residence hall, and was the fourth and final meeting in the series of neighborhood working sessions.

The open meeting, which took place at the UW-Milwaukee Kenilworth Square Peck School of the Arts, was led by the project’s architect and UWM assistant professor Jim Shields of Hammel, Green & Abrahamson, Inc. (HGA)

Resident concern was apparent during the two hour meeting as Shields was grilled on issues ranging from the building’s environmental impact and aesthetic appearance to student safety and snow removal.

Shields was tactful in easing concerns about the proposed residence hall’s size, juxtaposing the project to that of the nearby Wisconsin Paper Board grounds building which is substantially larger at over 700 feet long.

Environmental concerns and building placement were also taken into account by the project’s designers. Shields noted that Mandel was “staying away from the Milwaukee River Valley even though it owns land right up to the water.”

In addition to distancing the building footprint away from the Milwaukee River, the project will also have several eco-friendly systems in place. Shields described two “green roofs” and a rainwater storage system that will be integral parts of the environmentally conscious building plan.

In addition to the physical building structure, HGA also hopes to build a new handicap-accessible path that will be constructed under the North Avenue Bridge to allow both dorm residents and the general public to travel down to the river valley.

Several in attendance expressed deep concern with the lighting of the path and the potential of intoxicated students to participate in risky behavior near the river.

To add to complexity of the problem, Shields also noted that the path will be located “where, tragically, a lot of homeless men live”, thus bringing to light more obstacles that UWM “will have to deal with.”

Another safety concern was the issue of whether or not students were mature enough to be allowed access to the proposed green roofs. Shields responded that they would be denied roof access in order to ensure that students “would not be provided with a fatal jump location.”

Earlier in the session, Mandel’s Chief Operating Officer Robert Monnat had prefaced the community talk by depicting it as being “designed to solicit input” and a great method for “information gathering.”

Yet, toward the end of the meeting it became clear that all in attendance were not pleased with how the Mandel Group working sessions were scheduled and run.

Tension arose in the room when Joe Klein, President of the Cambridge Woods Neighborhood Association expressed his dissatisfaction with both UWM and the Mandel Group.

“Neighborhood groups would like to see the university do cooperative outreach with neighborhood associations,” said Klein, facing the room of attendees. “There is a feeling that the schedule for meetings was just dropped and there wasn’t a two-way cooperation.”

Klein also called the university’s approach “hierarchical and formal.”

Despite the mixed feelings about the Mandel Group working sessions, the project is scheduled to move forward to the formal public approval stage, which involves getting support from the Milwaukee Common Council. The dates of future meetings are yet to be released.

> Comments