Barkow Leibinger Architects & Kyle Talbott

Marcus Prize Pavilion

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

2008

Dotted with brownfield sites, Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley is just one of the nation’s many damaged postindustrial corridors in need of revitalization. Through a design-build studio at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Barkow Leibinger Architects and Professor Kyle Talbott introduced a catalyst for the process of its rehabilitation. The studio created the Marcus Prize Pavilion, a permanent structure to serve as a meeting point and storage facility for volunteer gardeners working to restore the surrounding landscape. The pavilion’s design is inspired by local ecology, with a light, plywood-beamed roof mimicking the structure of leaves. It’s meant to be the first of a series of interventions to create a support network for the valley’s environmental reclamation.

Accessibility, Community, Economy, Information, Pleasure, Sustainability
55,000
170 days – 70 days design and prototyping + 70 days permits & shop fabrication + 30 days on-site installation
16
Problem - revitalization of Menomonee Valley
Solution - pilot pavilion to support landscape remediation and join communities