On Thursday, AIA Milwaukee had an enlightening tour of Community Within the Corridor, the adaptive reuse project at a long-vacant historic industrial site on Milwaukee’s near northside, a development that is one of the most substantial affordable housing projects in the city and state’s history.
Participants heard from the project contractor, developer Que El-Amin from Scott Crawford, Inc., and architect Falamak Nourzad, AIA from Continuum Architects + Planners, S.C.. They shared the challenges faced and the innovative solutions implemented while attendees experienced firsthand the impressive successes achieved in transforming the historic site.
Key insights included understanding the process to gain support from political and community stakeholders, examining the challenges of fitting the program into nine existing buildings of varied sizes while maintaining design continuity, recognizing the diverse financing strategies that made the project viable, and identifying the approaches used to resolve unforeseen conditions while maintaining the historic integrity of the structures.
