Hangability should be the standard by which any college union is judged. Is the building comfortable, easy, with nooks to make your own?
The newly renovated UW-Milwaukee Student Union passes that test. The refreshed space has funky modern furniture in black, orange and yellow that harken to the black and gold of the university’s colors, visual touches such as Milwaukee’s skyline etched on glass doors, opened up pathways and added windows providing more light. Outside, new signage lights up at night. A glass panel replaces the heavy concrete awning that darkened the circle drive entrance.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
The union, originally built in 1956 with additions in ’63, ’72 and ’87, was badly segmented and hard to navigate before the $40 million redo, says Brandon James, associate director of union and student affairs marketing. On the second floor, the Union Art Gallery has been rendered more “galleryesque,” says James. In the basement, the Gasthaus bar has ditched its “wood-paneled basement feel,” and now sports a sleeker black, yellow and off-white motif and circular modern lighting. The student-run 8th Note Coffeehouse, a weird, dark corridor-like space, is slated for a redo this spring. Huge 8-by-8-foot banners that hang in the union’s three-story entry concourse will remain, following advice from alumni surveys.
The union, wrote Mary Louise Schumacher of the Journal Sentinel in 2012, is “simply a bad building. I don’t know a soul who’d defend it.” Here goes: Despite its kludged Brutalist exterior and still-dated, Lego-like interior, the UWM Union feels oddly pleasing. New generations of students will enjoy hanging there.
