Milwaukee Public Museum, Future Museum

Located at the edge of Milwaukee’s urban center and near the newly re-invigorated entertainment district, the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) is poised to create connections to adjacent neighborhood populations.

At the heart of the vision for the Future Museum is a desire to explore the intersections of nature and culture and to showcase their renown collections containing over 4 million specimens, which range from the Natural (Botany, Zoology, and Geology) to the Cultural (Regional, Indigenous, Euro-American History and Technology).

The building will include five stories; the first floor will house an open commons atrium where visitors and the public can gather and bask in natural light from a sunlit lightwell; the four upper levels of exhibit space will be offset from neighboring floors in the Museum’s collections storage lobe, allowing visitors to peek into and preview different exhibit floors and collections that are not part of specific exhibits or dioramas.

The new museum will also include two gardens, located near the entrance to the museum and on the rooftop, providing an opportunity to bring native plants back into Milwaukee’s urban environment.