Belay MKE Milwaukee Johnsen Schmaling Architects

摘要

Rock climbing and residential isn't an obvious mix of uses, but when a suburban Milwaukee gym started looking for a location closer to downtown, they teamed with an enlightened residential developer and local firm Johnsen Schmaling Architects to forge a solution that deploys the "big box" necessary for the program without that typology's typically anti-urban aspects. The firm started with a remarkable advantage in designing the building, Belay MKE: The developer set no requirement for the number of rental apartments, allowing design to drive the program. The architects positioned the 6o-foot-tall blank-walled gym at the site's northwest corner, facing a main thoroughfare, and configured units on a single-loaded, backwards L-shaped corridor, fitting 46 apartments in all. One-bedroom units along the building's east side and two-bedroom units on the south overlook the Milwaukee River and provide views of either Lake Michigan or downtown in the distance.