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The results of last month’s public survey on potential options for the Domes are in—and they reinforce the overwhelming community support for a preservation solution for these Midcentury Modern icons. The survey received over 2,400 responses, and 67 percent of responders preferred reinvesting in all three Domes (options 4, 5a, and 5b combined). Thanks to all of you who took action for the Domes!

The Domes Task Force’s Phase 1 "Future Path and Feasibility Study" report makes it clear that reinvesting in the Mitchell Park Domes would spur transformative educational, conservation, social, and community benefits, as well as encourage economic growth and job creation.

Save Our Domes hopes that Milwaukee County will continue to take this overwhelming community support of the restoration and preservation of all three Mitchell Park Domes into account as the future of this historic landmark is decided. Stay tuned for more updates about the Task Force’s work and details about the next Save Our Domes meeting, to be held in late summer/early fall.

The architect of Milwaukee’s Mitchell Park Domes, Donald Grieb, has passed away at age 99. Most of Grieb’s other high-profile commissions in Milwaukee, including the Milwaukee County Courthouse Annex and Union Station, have been demolished, leaving the Domes to carry his legacy of daring Midcentury Modern design into the next generation.

In a 2016 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel interview, Grieb's son, Donald Grieb Jr., said of his father's design: "He woke up at 4 a.m. and it just kind of burst into his head. I remember him making models out of toothpicks and balsa wood at home."

Greib won an international design competition for the right to design the Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory in 1958. In addition to their stunning architectural features, the Domes are marvels of modern engineering, featuring the world’s first “conoidal”—or cone-shaped—domes. They are the world’s first glass conoidal domes, and remain the only glass conoidal domes in the world being used as conservatories. Grieb’s groundbreaking “Dome Building Construction” method received a patent in 1965.

The Save Our Domes Coalition continues to advocate for the rehabilitation and reuse of all three Domes as a community resource, with programming and sustainable financial operations.

Earlier this month, the Save Our Domes coalition was publicly launched. The Coalition is advocating for a preservation solution for the Mitchell Park Domes, and the vision is to see all three domes rehabbed and reused, as a community resource, with programming and sustainable financial operations. Right now, county officials are considering demolition of one or more Domes, along with other options ranging from partial restoration to full reconstruction of the buildings.

You can follow the campaign on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaveOurDomes

Ingenious and beautiful, the Mitchell Park Domes are nationally significant Midcentury Modern structures that are an important part of Milwaukee’s heritage. Milwaukee County is now evaluating long-term options for the Domes, including demolition, partial restoration, or full reconstruction.

A new report prepared by Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates (WJE) for the National Trust outlines a comprehensive rehabilitation approach that would cost $18.6 million. In addition to costing approximately one-third the amount of the full rehab option outlined by the County’s consultants, the WJE approach also provides solutions to the water infiltration issues that have long plagued the Domes.

WJE is a highly respected firm that has worked on such high-profile projects as St. Louis’s Gateway Arch, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Milwaukee City Hall, the Washington Monument, and the Sydney Opera House. WJE believes that “the Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory Domes are unique, architecturally significant structures that have performed well during their first fifty-eight years of service life and can be preserved.”

Campaign Goals

• Rally public support to save the Mitchell Park Domes.
• Increase awareness about this nationally significant example of Midcentury Modern architecture.

Campaign Partner

• Milwaukee Preservation Alliance