Bringing a once abandoned brownfield site back to life

Reed Street Yards Redevelopment

It wasn’t long ago that this former rail yard brownfield site sat vacant. Through a collaborative effort between the City of Milwaukee, developers, and design teams, Reed Street Yards now offers 17 acres of mixed-use development opportunities along the Menomonee River in downtown Milwaukee.

As one of Wisconsin’s first Eco-Industrial Parks, we designed the surrounding landscape to coincide with the natural resource and sustainable theme of the site. With bike trails, canoe and kayak launches, and a site-wide stormwater management system, this site is slated as a demonstration project to showcase water-based technologies and business. We combined hard and soft design elements, creating a walkway plaza that incorporated the natural resources theme through several water features and native plantings. Our designers also incorporated green stormwater solutions through in-curb bioswales and rain gardens to help promote water-oriented sustainability of the entire project site.

Creative landscape design transformed this site from a run-of-the-mill office park, to a waterfront destination for not only businesses but members of the community as well.