Milwaukee’s Red Arrow Park could undergo big changes – including replacing its skating rink with a “skating ribbon” running throughout much of the small downtown park.
Other possible changes include older trees replaced by young trees, and a new kiosk where people can buy grab and go snacks and beverages.
Three conceptual redesigns for Red Arrow Park, 920 N. Water St., are the topic of a March 5 open house at City Hall.
The open house runs 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the rotunda.
Those three plans will be refined based on public feedback and presented at a second open house in early summer.
The idea is to create a final proposal by summer’s end, and then obtain cost estimates, before launching a fundraising campaign.
Red Arrow Park is owned by Milwaukee County − which faces ongoing budget challenges. The 1.2-acre park’s possible redesign is being overseen by the county, city, and the Milwaukee Downtown Business Improvement District − a public organization funded by downtown commercial property owners.
District officials are engaging with the community to create a vibrant, inclusive place “where residents, workers, and visitors can connect, gather, and celebrate year-round,” said CEO Matt Dorner, in a statement.
The Common Council and Mayor Cavalier Johnson in 2024 approved spending $500,000 on design work for the possible changes. Those funds come from a tax incremental financing district tied to newer downtown commercial developments.
Milwaukee’s latest downtown comprehensive plan, approved in 2023 by the council and Johnson, called for making the park a more active public space with year-round programming.
Meanwhile, Johnson’s Department of Public Works is drafting proposed changes to a stretch of North Water Street that includes Red Arrow Park.
Those changes could cut car lanes from four to two, and add protected bike lanes, between East Pleasant Street and East Kilbourn Avenue. That might encourage more biking and walking – and perhaps more visits to the park.
Red Arrow Park’s three conceptual proposals are designed to maintain important assets, and make improvements, said Therese Hanson, an architect with The Kubala Washatko Architects, and landscape architect Janelle Johnson, a partner with Philadelphia-based OLIN – which are leading the redesign effort.
Hanson and Johnson said park assets include spaced leased to Biggby Coffee; the skating area; public gathering space, and trees.
Red Arrow Division memorial could be relocated
The park also hosts two memorials. One honors the Army’s Red Arrow Division, for which the park is named.
There’s also a bench remembering the life of Dontre Hamilton, who was killed in a 2014 police shooting at the park.
Some proposals call for relocating those memorials within the park. That could include placing the Dontre Hamilton bench in a garden-like setting for quiet contemplation, Johnson said.
All three alternatives feature the food and beverage kiosk near the corner of Kilbourn Avenue and Water Street to help anchor the park, she said.
One plan, dubbed “The Commons,” calls for the lawn in the park’s southern portion to be replaced by a paved area to create a larger civic plaza, Johnson said.
Another proposal, “The Courtyard,” includes shifting the skating rink southward to make it more central within the park. That would allow seating around the rink’s entire perimeter, she said.
All three proposals calls for replacing the current rink, which opened in 1999. Rink improvements also could pave the way for year-round activities, such as roller skating.
The current rink is 9,950 square feet − larger than New York’s famed Rockefeller Plaza rink, which is 7,100 square feet, Hanson said.
The Commons and The Courtyard proposals call for conventional rinks of 8,700 square feet and 8,820 square feet, respectively.
The biggest change would create a skating ribbon – an 8,750-square-foot skating path circulating throughout much of the park. That’s the focus of the third proposal, “The Garden.”
Similar skating ribbons have been built in such cities as Chicago and Washington, D.C. Wisconsin added its first skating ribbon in 2024 − in Boulder Junction.
The public feedback to the conceptual plans will play a big role in shaping the final proposal, Johnson and Hanson said.
“We want input,” Hanson said. “Do people like these ideas, or not?”
Red Arrow Park’s original location was between North 10th and North 11th Streets, just south of West Wisconsin Avenue.
Construction of the the Marquette Interchange in the mid-’60s led to the park’s relocation in 1970 to its current site − a former parking lot.
The park’s 1999 redesign, including the skating rink, was led by by Continuum Architects + Planners.
That $2.4 million project [$4.6 million in today’s inflation-adjusted dollars] transformed Red Arrow Park from a “half sterile plaza, half suburban-style retreat” into “a street-friendly urban asset,” wrote Whitney Gould, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel architectural critic.
Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, Bluesky, X and Facebook.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Red Arrow Park could see changes, with skating path replacing rink
Reporting by Tom Daykin, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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