Promise in Eschweiler buildings

In a front-page article that appeared on Aug. 13, the designer of the historic buildings on the Innovation Campus in Wauwatosa was wrongly referred to as “Andrew Eschweiler” (“Grand plan for charter school at Innovation Campus unravels”).

The correct name is Alexander Eschweiler. Wisconsin’s “other” most notable architect, Alexander Chadbourne Eschweiler designed almost a dozen buildings for the Milwaukee County School of Agriculture and Domestic Science, which was open from 1911 to 1928. The school’s campus quadrangle road leads to the Administration Building pictured in the article.

The building has beautiful bones! Photos in the Journal Sentinel have shown the handsome but crumbling Collegiate Tudor Revival Architecture and also its cathedrallike arching beams in the gymnasium upstairs.

With the latest proposal for a regional charter school for a Forest Exploration Center, it is exciting to see that students also will be able to experience the protected butterfly habitat zone behind it. This plan seems to have the most promise after almost 10 years of struggle to find ways to restore, preserve and repurpose the remaining buildings

The article well described the recent complications for developing the ideas, but I hope there will be an effective group of creative people to seize this opportunity to collaborate and make education alive again in our county’s former school.

I have no doubt that Alexander would be glad for it, too.

Win Thrall

Guest curator Eschweiler in Milwaukee Exhibition

Allis Art Museum - 2007

Shorewood