How We Built a Better Postman’s Park in Milwaukee
It all started with an idea, and the idea wasn’t even ours — it was from a bunch of really smart people with the National Endowment for the Arts and leaders of other national arts organizations that convened in Washington, DC in November 2014. During their “Beyond the Building” meeting they identified national conferences for their potential to make creative placemaking contributions to host communities.
Once we heard that the National Main Street Center was having their Main Street Now conference in Milwaukee in May 2016, we had to put the creative placemaking idea to work. Quickly we identified local leaders already engaged in placemaking. We ran across NEWaukee by doing a quick Google search. This group of young professionals describes themselves as a “social architecture firm” that works hard “To Make Our City More Awesome!”
Quickly after making our first contact we put in a session proposal for the Creative Placemaking Bootcamp where we’d transform an actual physical space in Milwaukee and leave something behind. Soon thereafter we identified a location — Postman’s Park. Buck and Palmer in their Outdoor Sculpture in Milwaukee: A Cultural and Historical Guidebook wrote:
“The downtown Milwaukee site of the monument is correct in a historical sense, but unsuccessful in its public presence. Site considerations for the monument were overlooked and it stands on the small crowded triangle with annoying awkwardness.”
We sought to change that. Joining our team was the Greater Milwaukee Association of REALTORS and the National Association of REALTORS who provided valuable funding to assist with the project. Milwaukee designer Ryan Tretow took the lead on preparing initial designs and renderings for our work in the park. With such an impressive team we were on our way to make magic happen.
When we saw the park for the first time just before arriving for our conference, we weren’t exactly thrilled with the condition. There were visible signs of neglect. It was not a welcoming spot. Residents from the area mostly used it as a potty area for their dogs, and, as if that wasn’t bad enough, they left evidence of their handiwork behind. Honestly, the park was just gross.
What gave us some hope were the yet to be fully painted installation pieces that Ryan Tretow designed. These various interventions from a table, to a mailbox for people to send love letters to Milwaukee, and a interpretive sign/viewfinder — signified a better future for Postman’s Park.
When the day of our session arrived we were ready to make some magic happen. After an early morning hardware run to get some supplies, we spent most of the morning on the lot preparing. While doing so we took time to interact with people as they passed by. One of the highlights was a gentleman bringing his dog out for a walk. Once we got started talking he opened up and shared how we worked with President Ronald Reagan. In addition to that, he was on the team that coined the phrase “Morning in America.” After asking him to write it down and leave his signature he left. Though the idea stuck with us.
Finally, the appointed hour and day for our session arrived. We were pleased to have several dozen people waiting for us and ready to go. After brief introductions in which we laid out the concepts, we left our conference room and took to the streets.
One of the highlights of the bootcamp was asking this street vendor to join us. She had been doing fairly well in a shadeless spot in a large corporate office plaza a few blocks away. As we walked to Postman’s Park she willingly joined us. Throughout the course of our two-hour build she sold out nearly all of her product. This reminded us of how important food is for attracting people, and how events like ours can go a long way towards supporting entrepreneurs.
Another highlight of the workshop was building eight pallet chairs. Given our tight time constraints we pre-cut the necessary pieces and assembled these in to kits that could be used to build each chair from. We were impressed how quickly participants took to the work — many of whom never built a chair like this before.
Throughout the process we encouraged collaboration among participants, sharing knowledge as they built chairs. At one point we even asked a pair of participants to help advise all the other teams on the final steps.
Painting was another primary event during the workshop. Having enough quality paintbrushes kept several members of our team busy for the first portion of the bootcamp.
A brief two hours after we first set foot on Postman’s Park our bootcamp was done. Cleanup and fine-tuning kept us on site a few hours more — during which it was fun to see and hear the feedback from passers-by. We also enjoyed having bootcamp participants circle back to see the finished results. We also encouraged participants to share their experience online using the hashtag #BetterMainStreet.
Overall the Creative Placemaking Bootcamp exceeded our wildest expectations. Milwaukee got a valuable upgrade to an important and historic park not far from their conference center. Participants in the bootcamp got valuable first-hand experience to give them useful knowledge and experiences to apply when they get back home. Perhaps the greatest takeaway for us was how work like this can be done at any conference or gathering where there is a place that motivated people want to make better. We look forward to taking these ideas on the road to other places and at other conferences.
Want to talk about our project in Milwaukee? Visit our website and send a quick note at www.placepromo.com.
