Tale of our tower

April 28, 2009

By Anna Passante

At one time the church steeples of St. Augustine, St. Lucas, and Bay View United Methodist were the tallest points in Bay View. In 1964, the 25-story, 275-foot-high Bay View Terrace was built and subsequently dwarfed all those ecclesiastical steeples. After nearly 45 years, the Terrace still dominates the skyline at the corner of E. Russell Avenue and S. Shore Drive and is still the tallest building on Milwaukee’s south side.

Before the Tower

The six lots that constitute the Terrace property once contained three wood-frame worker cottages and were home to the Gallaghers, the Sorensons, and the Mackins. Of the six lots, three remained vacant, and Felix Giombi, who lived at 2500 S. Superior St., had a vegetable garden on those lots. “He apparently had permission to use part of the land for a garden, and I understand he had quite an extensive fruit and vegetable patch,” said his granddaughter Mary Giombi Haas.

The city of Milwaukee had acquired the six lots after the nearby Illinois Steel Company closed in 1929, and in September 1941, the city hired Giombi to raze the cottages. Between 1941 and 1964, the property remained empty and served as a playground for neighborhood children. South Shore Drive residents John Ebersol and Linda Becker recalled playing on the grassy lot as children. Becker recalled seeing remnants of concrete steps, suggesting to her that houses once stood there. Tom Groppi, who also grew up near the lot, recalled trees dotting the patch and a bubbler that sat on E. Russell Avenue.

In June 1963, the city sold the 150-by-300-foot lot for $78,000 to the Bay View Terrace, Ltd., for a proposed condominium project. The company was comprised of Eliot G. Fitch, president of the Marine National Exchange Bank, and the architectural firm of Rasche Schroeder Spransy & Associates. (The architectural firm also designed the 21-story, 250-foot Pfister Hotel Tower in 1965.)

Their original plan called for 30 floors, but this was deemed too tall by the Federal Aviation Agency, which had an air easement over the building site. The revised 25-floor design contained 99 two-bedroom units and 49 one-bedroom units. Ground was broken May 5, 1964 and the building was completed later that year at a cost of $3.5 million.

A Pioneering Project

A Nov. 17, 1963 Milwaukee Journal article identified the Terrace as “Milwaukee’s first condominium apartment building.”

According to longtime residents, the neighbors did not know about the proposed condo project until after the land had been sold to the developer. As far as opposition to the project, Katie Canning, who formerly lived on the 2500 block of Superior Street, said, “It wasn’t like today, when people object to things being built.”

Erwin Zillman, the alderman at the time, felt the high rise would enhance the neighborhood by increasing house values. In his book, So You Will Know, Zillman wrote, “Once the first apartments are built in that area, it will open the door to other apartment projects, which will completely transform and upgrade the property and valuation of the entire area.”

The Engineering New Record Magazine called the Bay View Terrace a “pioneering project,” because of the use of the Swedish “slip form” method in its construction. The slip forms were filled with concrete and the forms were gradually raised and filled with more concrete. To raise the forms, 138 jacks were used, each capable of lifting three tons, wrote Henry J. Boehm in a 1990 Bay View Historian article. “Tons of reinforcing bars-extra strong ones for the corners” were used in construction, wrote Boehm. A hopper carried concrete up and workers used wheelbarrows to move the concrete “to the four points where it was poured evenly with a special vibrating tool,” wrote Boehm. It took 28 days for all 25 floors to be poured.

The east and west sides of the building feature curved bays, decorated with patterned concrete. The north and south sides of the building have curved pieces of stainless steel protruding slightly from the building.

Apartments & Condos

The developers planned to sell the units on the 13th through the 25th floors and rent the first floor through 12th floor units. “We are aiming our sales on executives and professional men,” Robert Rasche told the Milwaukee Journal in November 1963. The target for the rental units were men who worked for firms with plants in various parts of the country, and “would rather rent than tie themselves to a property,” said Rasche.

According to Boehm’s article, prices ranged from $30,000 to $40,000. “However, when the condos did not sell, all the units became rentals at $200 to $300 a month,” Boehm wrote.

When the condo market caught on in 1980s, the developer offered renting residents the opportunity to buy their units for a price ranging from $36,500 to $77,000. As a result, all the units were sold. Currently, prices for the condos range approximately from $170,000 to $250,000.

Passante has lived in the Terrace since October 2007.

Fast Facts

Bay View historian Bernard Korn lived in the building in 1976. Korn wrote The Story of Bay View and was principal of Bay View High School.

Lawrencia “Bambi” Bembenek lived in the building in 1980. The former Playboy Bunny and Milwaukee police officer was found guilty in 1982 of murdering her husband’s ex-wife. She has professed her innocence but lost an appeal in 2008.

In 1964, the building was called the Bay View Terrace Apartments. It wasn’t until 1980 that the building was renamed Bay View Terrace Condominium.

The Terrace is the 17th tallest building in Milwaukee, according to skyscraperpage.com.

~Anna Passante

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