In 2018, Milwaukee welcomed its first embedded-track streetcar system in nearly 50 years, reintroducing a critical modality to its burgeoning business districts and downtown neighborhoods in an influential public-private partnership. The streetcar, which reimagined the popular transit system of the late 1800s for the future with sustainability, flexibility, accessibility, and off-wire technology in mind, sought to transform downtown mobility, providing residents and visitors alike with easy, accessible connection in a city amid ongoing economic development and growth.
Led by the City of Milwaukee, with HNTB Corporation serving as lead design firm, Milwaukee’s streetcar system, fondly known as The Hop, represents a transformative investment in urban mobility and placemaking. The initial 2.1-mile, 18-station route laid the foundation for future connectivity, including the 0.8-mile Lakefront Line, or L-Line, extension. As part of the first phase of proposed expansion, a 0.4-mile extension from the Milwaukee Intermodal Station along Vel R. Phillips Avenue and Fifth Street was planned to enhance access to key downtown destinations such as Fiserv Forum and the Deer District. During this planning process, the vision for Vel R. Phillips Plaza emerged as a bold concept to convert a vacant surface parking lot in the heart of downtown into a vibrant, multi-modal civic space and experiential destination.
“HNTB has been a long-standing partner to the City of Milwaukee, supporting its vision and infrastructure projects for decades,” said Michael Hammond, Project Manager at HNTB in Milwaukee. “In 2018 and 2019, we worked closely with the City to explore potential streetcar system extensions, including a proposed route to Fiserv Forum, home of the Milwaukee Bucks. That extension would have connected the Milwaukee Intermodal Station at the south end of downtown to the arena, enhancing access to major destinations. The proposed route crossed what is now the site of Vel R. Phillips Plaza—located along Wisconsin Avenue between Fifth Street and the former Fourth Street, now renamed Vel R. Phillips Avenue.”
“Between 2010 and 2018, a local development group called WAMDC—Wisconsin Avenue Milwaukee Development Corporation—was tasked with the revitalization of Wisconsin Ave. As part of that effort, they implemented a number of activation strategies on a site that had long served as a surface parking lot, reinforcing its potential for redevelopment. Our team saw those strategies succeed in bringing energy and activity to the space. So, when working with the City of Milwaukee on the streetcar extension, the site was identified as a natural fit for a civic plaza as part of the streetcar extension,” Hammond added.
HNTB is an employee-owned infrastructure solutions firm with more than 70 offices nationwide, including locations in Green Bay, Madison, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The firm, which embraces collaboration and strives to shape mobility across built environments from bridges and highways to digital infrastructure, has long partnered with the City of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, and Wisconsin Department of Transportation, to name a few. When the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County looked to activate this vacant lot as a dynamic transit plaza, they tapped the collaborative expertise of HNTB, as well as The Kubala Washatko Architects, or TKWA, a Milwaukee-based architecture, planning, and interior design studio; and Saiki Design, a Madison-based firm specializing in landscape architecture and sustainable site design, to realize the vision.
“Once the site was identified for Vel R. Phillips Plaza, our three firms collaborated closely from the early stages,” Hammond said. “We engaged in a charrette process to shape the vision and identify key design elements—one of which was the streetcar traveling directly through the plaza, inspired by similar transit-integrated public spaces like an example at Portland State University. Internally, our team also studied how the plaza would fit into the broader Westown block structure. This part of downtown is defined by large venues like the Baird Center, Miller High Life Theatre, and Fiserv Forum, which contribute to a district of oversized blocks. Our goal was to create a space that felt more welcoming and pedestrian-friendly for visitors to Westown.”
The large-scale civic buildings are also contrasted by fine-scale historic structures and new development, structure parking, and surfaced areas, and with TKWA, Saiki Design, and City of Milwaukee’s Department of City Development, HNTB worked through a number of design iterations that would capture the activation and vibrancy that had been envisioned from the onset. The multidisciplinary team, which included landscape architecture, geotechnical analysis, building and lighting design, and drainage and structural engineering, looked to transform the challenging geometry of the site that would integrate key features like a station to accommodate Milwaukee County’s East-West Bus Rapid Transit Line, or Connect 1 BRT, public art installations, bump-outs into the street to calm traffic and shorten pedestrian crossing, and a 2,900-square-foot food and beverage retail pavilion space.
It is meant to serve as a front door and gateway to downtown, integrating additional flex space to support farmers markets, food trucks, and community events, and as a multimodal intersection and transit hub, where future expansion to the city’s downtown streetcar line travels through the plaza on a diagonal route with minimal disruption to the overall experience of the site. For Saiki Design, that thematic experience, or “Green Oasis” within the Westown neighborhood, drove the organizing element of the overall design, informing the diamond grid of trees, and resulted in the permeable pavers and continuous, monolithic structural soil system that runs underneath much of the plaza to support tree growth and health.
Its landscape also includes stormwater gardens and informational kiosks in dedication to Milwaukee and Wisconsin civil rights activist, Velvalea Hortense Rodgers Phillips, or Vel R. Phillips, with temporary art installations like “Within the Folds (Dialogue 1)” by Thomas J. Price and a permanent memorial installation anticipated by 2026 to “remind Milwaukee of the transformative power of unity, commitment to justice, and expanding liberties,” according to Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson in reference to the Department of City Development’s announcement that it had commissioned Karyn Olivier for the public artwork at the plaza. The work, entitled “I Didn’t Do It Alone,” will feature two stone architectural sections with figurative sculptures, a bronze chair, and a bronze desk with six outward-facing figures that represent citizens, activists, and leaders who collaborated with Phillips over the years.
“The plaza experience was thoughtfully designed to reflect Vel R. Phillips’ legacy,” Hammond said. “Early design included educational kiosks at the northeast corner that share her story and contributions to Milwaukee and Wisconsin. Moving west across the site, the space opens into a flexible area with permeable pavers that support stormwater infiltration and accommodate community events and markets.”
Vel R. Phillips’ legacy is so much more than the many “firsts” she achieved in her life—first African-American woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin Law School, first African-American to be elected to the Milwaukee Common Council, first female judge in Milwaukee, first African-American judge in Wisconsin, first person of color to serve as Secretary of State in Wisconsin, and first African-American to be elected as a member of the Democratic National Committee. For Olivier, the Philadelphia-based artist born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, the permanent memorial and installation speaks to Phillips’ persistence, hard work, and optimism, and invites viewers to challenge themselves on what impact they can make in their own lives. Even the tree grove planted onsite is intentional in its dedication, incorporating a number of aspen trees for the canopy, a favorite species of Phillips.
“We felt that was important,” Hammond said. “The grove of trees was also a concept that our team was really drawn to because there aren’t a ton of gathering spaces in Westown and there certainly aren’t a lot of places with a grove of trees. There are around 30 trees, which are very visible, but the idea is to allow those trees to flourish over their lifespan, which is not necessarily visible. Saiki Design led the effort to install soil cells that will allow the trees to flourish in an urban environment, so we are really excited about the long-term tree health and tree growth that will occur in the plaza.”
Hammond noted another prominent, albeit invisible element of the design at the moment is the plaza’s planned future use as a streetcar platform and the team is currently working with the vendor on the interior build-out of the 3,000 square-foot pavilion space onsite.
“I’m personally excited, because this is a neighborhood I go to all the time. I go on runs around this neighborhood, I go to special events in this neighborhood, so I just love seeing something that our team at HNTB has helped build for the community, while honoring a civil rights icon,” Hammond said. “It’s a really unique space for Milwaukee and a significant investment from the City of Milwaukee in a gathering space of this kind. I think it will have a long-lasting impact on Westown.”
The American Council of Engineering Companies, or ACEC, recognized Vel R. Phillips Plaza as a 2025 Engineering Excellence State Finalist—one of a dozen projects honored through its 2025 ACEC Engineering Excellence Awards, including the firm’s Brightline Florida East-West Connector and Lynwood Link Extension projects as Grand Award winners. The plaza, which was completed in 2024, is an active, year-round gathering place that has improved transit efficiency and accessibility, and enhanced pedestrian services, and is intended to serve as a catalyst for continued development in the surrounding area. Hammond said design is about taking an idea and being able to put it into action and credits the collaborative spirit of the team—HNTB, TKWA, and Saiki Design—behind the vision of the plaza that at the end of the day serves as a multimodal, community-centric gathering place that moves people on so many levels.
“HNTB is all about making connections possible and this project does that in a variety of ways while also creating a unique gathering space,” Hammond said. “Everybody moves, everybody travels in their life, and they are often doing it on a daily basis. HNTB is about supporting our clients, and the City of Milwaukee has a vision to provide safe transportation choices for people, which is what transportation infrastructure is about: providing those transportation choices to people who travel every day.”
First published in Great Lakes By Design: In Flight, Volume 9, Issue 5
Text: R.J. Weick