What Demolition Wrought – The Other Side

Photo by Corey Hengen

Often, only one side of demolition is acknowledged in the process; frequently, that element focuses on taking components away from the local landscape. The central aspect of much of our work signals the beginning of something new, enhanced, and greatly improved.

There is a strong current of nationwide activism that advocates alternatives to demolition. Such campaigners readily cite environmental factors in an effort to postpone or deny knocking buildings down. Never realized in these debates is the fact that the environmental quality through these initiatives is greatly improved.

I can confidently decree that our company does more to improve the environment and health of people on any given day than most of these activists could accrue in a lifetime.

Our results are measureable and can be quantified; Champion Environmental Services, Inc. mitigates harmful lead, removes asbestos/PCB’s/mercury/Freon/ and ensures the extensive recycling of materials as opposed to the simple encumbrance of landfill dumping.

When Champion Environmental Services, Inc. demobilizes from a job site, we leave knowing that a cleaner, safer, and healthier environment for generations to come is accessible.

The Following article appeared yesterday in the “Daily Reporter”. Champion Environmental Services, Inc. is the asbestos abatement and demolition contractor for the Westlawn Project in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Our endeavor will provide a desirable resolution to a weathered problem. The redevelopment will eventually provide clean, safe, affordable housing to low-income families, the elderly, and those with special needs.

I want to acknowledge that the article was written by Marie Rohde; the photograph was taken by Corey Hengen, and future rendering of the site is from the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee.

Welcome to the neighborhood: Westlawn ready for remake (UPDATE)
Published: October 6, 2010
By Marie Rohde

The city of Milwaukee is ready to tear down the largest public housing project in the state and replace it with a neighborhood.

“When you drive by Westlawn, there’s no mistaking that it’s a housing project,” said Paul Williams, a spokesman for the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee. “We want to change that.”
The Westlawn housing complex, a series of barracks-style buildings, is on 75 acres bordered by 60th and 64th streets, Silver Spring Drive and the Lincoln Creek.

The redevelopment is intended to break down the boundaries that isolate the complex from the rest of the community. The new Westlawn will be a mixture of privately owned homes and housing for seniors, the disabled and the poor.

Homes that will sell at market rates will be built around the perimeter of the complex. Carolyn Esswein, adjunct assistant professor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Department of Urban Planning who is familiar with the plans, said those homes are attractive because they will be on 35- to 40-foot-wide lots while the average city lot is 25 feet.

“That’s been done elsewhere and the homes have sold quickly,” she said. “But it could be a matter of timing, and the economy right now could have an impact. There are a lot of people who want to buy vacant lots in the city, but they can’t get over the hurdles of financing.”

The market rate homes, according to city plans, will not be built until at least 2012.

Westlawn’s isolation was like that of other public housing built in the 1950s, and the redevelopment reflects changing attitudes toward public housing across the country, Esswein said.

The new Westlawn, for instance, would have streets connecting the complex to the rest of neighborhood.

“Right now, Westlawn is cut off from the rest of the neighborhood,” Esswein said. “When they connect the streets to the rest of the neighborhood and people can walk in and out, the residents will feel like part of the larger community.”

The plans also call for a small pharmacy and 12,500 square feet of commercial development for North 60th Street and West Silver Spring Drive. That was a response to requests from residents and another effort to connect the complex to the broader community, Williams said.

Residents who live in the east half of the complex have been moved to temporary housing, and demolition of those buildings has begun, Williams said. Those residents will be offered units in the new development, he said.

Construction on the eastern half, estimated at $101 million, is expected to begin in March and be completed in 2012.

The housing authority’s nonprofit partner, Friends of Housing, an organization involved in the senior housing portion of the development, will share part of that cost, Williams said. The project also got $7.4 million in tax credits to provide incentive for the development of affordable housing for low-income residents.
The second phase of the redevelopment will be built after 2012 and be about the same size and cost.

Williams said there is a need for low-income housing in the city. The waiting list for Westlawn has been closed for six months and has some 3,000 applicants awaiting
housing assignments.

Nancy Frank, a UWM urban planning associate professor, said the renovation of other housing projects has been controversial, such as with Chicago’s infamous Cabrini Green complex, where a mixed-use development replaced a traditional housing project.
“The question is whether they will provide fewer housing units for the poor,” Frank said.

The housing in the first phase will include one building with 94 single-bedroom units set aside for seniors and the disabled, Williams said. Another 160 town houses for families will be built there, he said.

Jim Bartos, executive director of the Silver Spring Neighborhood Center, said the remake will help the housing complex better mesh with the surrounding area.

“I think it’s going to be transformative for the whole neighborhood,” he said. “It’s going to be a stimulus for other development.”


Rendering by the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee