Nearly a decade after we got the first tantalizing glimpse behind the sheet metal siding that once covered the 1907 Kirchhoff & Rose-designed Schuster’s building at 2153 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Dr., the collaborative Thrive On King development that now occupies the first floor swung open its doors for an open house on Tuesday.
Thrive On King was announced in 2019 as a partnership between the Medical College of Wisconsin and the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, which planned a public-facing space where the community could gather and access important services.
Affordable housing would occupy the upper floors.
While work continues to build out the 90 apartments upstairs, the entities on the ground floor welcomed the neighborhood inside this week.
At the back is Malaika Early Learning Center, where teachers are setting up classrooms and rows of cribs await occupants in the nursery.
This colorful space is lit by skylights created by cutting a hole all the way up through the building during construction.
Back here, you can still see the doors of the old elevator bank, though the elevators are gone.
On the opposite side, the entrance to the center is the same one Schuster’s (later Gimbels Schuster’s) customers used to enter the 1913 addition off Garfield Avenue.
The most striking historical feature back here remains the curving mezzanine with its regal staircase. The mezzanine space will be used to train staff for other early education centers around the city.
Next to Malaika is Versiti Blood Center, where at the open house a number of people were already donating blood, including Mayor Cavalier Johnson and County Executive David Crowley.
Along with creating new jobs and providing skill training to employees, this Versiti location will also offer education on conditions that commonly affect communities of color, a community health navigator and basic social services.
Just outside the Versiti space is a bright and modern Wellness Lab, an intergenerational, multipurpose event space and meeting room with large screen, recessed meeting nooks and more.
There are other meeting rooms, too, including a large one near the King Drive entrance, that are available for community use
Also on the King Drive side is JobsWork MKE, which provides job training, placement and other services. It occupies a couple spaces flanking the entrance corridor in the 1940s addition to the south. Fortunately, the gleaming Deco entrance survives here.
The main space is open, with high ceilings, seating areas, a stage and a few historical elements, – including some decorative column capitals that are still visible – original mahogany wood details that have been restored, the original mezzanine and, best of all, the mahogany entrance with its revolving door.
That door leads inside from one of the coolest spaces in Milwaukee.
The U-shaped corridor embraced by the building and a long street-side display case has been turned into an art gallery, while maintaining many original details, including mosaic floor tile, copper details and mahogany woodwork.
Back inside is the Kinship Cafe, which has a training program, and was a hit at the open house as it offered samples of its wares.
The entire first floor is adorned with work that was created for ThriveOn King by local artists.
Out back, the Malaika playground is still under construction but the multi-story parking garage is complete and open.
You can read much more about the history of the building here, the construction here and the progress of the work to create this development here.
Thrive On King was developed in collaboration with Royal Capital.
The work to transform the building was done by architects Kahler Slater and Engberg Anderson with contractors CG Schmidt and JCP Construction.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
