In Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood, one building looms above the rest.
It’s a 275-foot-tall, 148-unit condominium called Bay View Terrace. The concrete tower at the foot of the Hoan Bridge has stacks of curved bay windows and strips of stainless steel that catch the sun.
I met Jeff Stanly at the building’s front entrance. He owns a condo on the 19th floor.
"So I have a panoramic view of Lake Michigan, the Hoan Bridge and downtown," Jeff says. The view never gets old. It's what drew him to buy a condo here 10 years ago.
But Jeff has noticed that this building sticks out quite a bit. It’s surrounded mostly by single-family homes. He sent us a Bubbler Talk question.
"I just started wondering why the Bay View Terrace tower is the only high-rise in this whole section of Milwaukee," he says.
A pioneering project
The story of Bay View Terrace goes back to the 1960s. Two men: architect Robert Rasche and banking executive Eliot G. Fitch proposed building a 30-story tower on an empty lot on South Shore Drive, right next to Lake Michigan.
It would be groundbreaking in a few ways. Not only would it be the tallest apartment in Milwaukee, it would be Wisconsin’s first condominium, where units are owned instead of rented. The newspaper at the time called it a “subdivision in the sky.”
Ron Winkler, a member of the Bay View Historical Society who has researched Bay View Terrace, says there was only one problem with developers' plans.
"[Bay View Terrace] is in the direct flight path to Mitchell International Airport," Ron says.
That meant the developers had to lower their plans for the building, from 30 stories to 25.
Rasche, Fitch and their partners planned to have the top 15 floors as condos, for prices between about $20,000-$30,000. The lower floors would be apartments.
The construction of the building was also unique.
"They used a procedure that was developed in Sweden for building silos. It’s called slip form," Ron says. "What they do is they pour the concrete in, and they raise up the frame, and they pour more concrete in, and it is constructed one floor at a time."
Construction finished in spring of 1964, at a cost of about $3.5 million.
Bay View Terrace was soon converted from condos to apartments — there wasn't enough demand in the 1960s and 70s for condos. It was switched back to condos later.
No more high rises
Ron says Bay View Terrace was championed by the local alderman, Erwin Zillman.
"His idea was that there would be a lot more of these in Bay View," Ron says. "He said this is a great idea, this will be good for the community, it will raise property values and it will attract people to Bay View."
But other residents had a different reaction to a high-rise going up in their neighborhood.
"They disagreed vehemently," Ron says. "And as a result, this is the only high-rise in Bay View."
I wasn’t able to find when Milwaukee changed its zoning rules to prohibit more high rises in Bay View. But the code now limits buildings in this area to about four stories.
Ron lives in Bay View, and he’s seen residents here put up a fuss even when three or four-story buildings are proposed.
"People don’t like it because it blocks their views," Ron says.
It’s literally in the name – Bay VIEW.
Bay View Terrace was built during a time when zoning was less restrictive. But after that, the neighbors apparently didn’t want any more high rises.
I asked Jeff Stanly, our question-asker, if he has conflicting feelings about living in a building that sticks out like a sore thumb.
"No, not really because it’s such a great place to live," Jeff says.
Every morning Jeff gets to sit in his living room and watch the sun rise over Lake Michigan. He’s happy to live in a high-rise condominium here in Bay View — even if it is the only one.
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