MKE County: Urban Ecology Center Adding Trail Connection, Greenspace to Riverside Park

From the Article:

At the Urban Ecology Center‘s Riverside Park campus, the development of a new event venue is only the nucleus of a project that will also improve trail and parkland access on the grounds surrounding it.

The Urban Ecology Center (UEC) plans to redevelop a large Cream City brick warehouse at its Riverside Park headquarters, 1500 E. Park Pl., into a 300-person event space, as Urban Milwaukee previously reported. But the project will also involve constructing a new connection to the Oak Leaf Trail and accessible green space, including a new water feature.

The outdoor, recreational elements of the project are focused on a portion of the campus UEC staff call the East Gateway. It is a patch of undeveloped land between the Oak Leaf Trail and the future event space. All that stands there now is the husk of a former building.

“It’s a derelict three walls, right,” said Marcos Guevara, Director of Strategy & Operations for Community Engagement. “It isn’t even a full building.”

What’s left of the structure will be taken down, and 70 feet of trail will be constructed, connecting E. Park Place and the offshoot of Milwaukee County Parks‘ Oak Leaf Trail that lattices the forested area of Riverside Park.

“So because our mission is to connect people to nature and each other, opening up more ways for people to access a park is really exciting,” Guevera said.