Right in front of you sits a massive convention space recognizable by its expansive red brick exterior, a sloping green roofline, and a prominent corner tower topped with a skeletal metal spire. This is the Baird Center, a place that perfectly captures how this city is constantly tearing up the script to write something entirely new, sometimes with a fair bit of friction along the way.
If you look closely at that brickwork and the sharply angled roofs, you will notice a deliberate callback to the historic German architecture that shaped much of downtown. It is a massive modern facility putting on the clothes of the nineteenth century.
But its history is totally modern, and full of wild pivots. Take a look at your screen to see the building as it stood in 2022, back when it was called the Wisconsin Center. In 2020, this venue was meant to host a massive showcase for the Democratic National Convention, but the pandemic forced everything to be radically downsized into a mostly virtual broadcast. Instead of addressing a roaring crowd, political delegates delivered their speeches to a nearly empty conference room right here, turning the expected economic boom into a political ghost town.
And the friction here is not just on the national stage. For decades, the inside of this building hosted one of the most uniquely Milwaukee pieces of public art you could ever imagine. It was an interactive escalator officially named Polka Time, though everyone just called it the Polkalator. The installation featured twenty two photographs of people dancing at a 1976 party, and riders could press a button to blast one of two hundred random polka songs on their way up.
It was quirky, it was fun, and it eventually became the center of a local cultural battle. A few years ago, the venue executive decided one of the photos, which featured a man sticking his tongue out, was inappropriate and demanded it be altered. The artist absolutely refused, arguing the work was an unchangeable historical record. In the end, during the recent massive expansion of the center, the entire Polkalator was dismantled. You can look at your app to see the glassy, hyper modern 2024 expansion that took its place. But the people did not let the Polkalator go quietly. On its final day, fans showed up in full traditional polka gear, high fiving each other as they rode it one last time. Attendees of the local anime convention even started treating the empty elevator bay like a shrine, leaving battery operated candles and Pokemon cards to mourn its loss.
It just goes to show how passionate folks around here get about their local flavor, even inside a corporate convention center. We are going to step away from modern politics and polka drama now, and head toward the institutions that preserve the deeper, ancient roots of the region. Next up is the Milwaukee Public Museum, just an easy five minute walk from here.
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