Merit Award
At dusk, benches illuminate the edge of the industrial waterfront
Desi gn: Wa t er Fron t
Stoss Landscape Urbanism
project name.
location.
Variations in bench shapes and locations foster multiple seating options
Erie Street Plaza
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Erie Street Plaza transforms an abandoned parking lot
and former furnace site into a new river amphitheater,
a vibrant social space, and a sustainable landscape
that treats stormwater and re-establishes a native
marsh. It is a model for open space that doubles
as inundation space for river flooding, storm surge
or sea level rise. It is one of a series of public space
activators along the Milwaukee Riverwalk, a threemile pedestrian and bicycle corridor connecting
downtown to the emerging and redeveloping
Third Ward and Beerline Districts, and to the lake
front beyond.
At the water’s edge lies the steel marsh, a
reconstituted wetland marsh implemented
behind the bulkhead wall. Upland from the marsh
is the terrace green, a hybrid of paving and grassy
lawn that allows for both active and passive uses.
Iregular placement of benches allows for multiple
and diverse social groupings or solitary retreats.
The Erie Street Plaza acts as a generator of urban
growth, connects the city back to its waterfront and
does so with a central focus of sustainability and
landscape function.
2013 Boston Society of Landscape Architects Fieldbook
73