Zenith
Milwaukee, WI- Residential
- New Land Enterprises
- 226 Units
Inspired by the elegance of Milwaukee’s historic Gold Coast overlooking Lake Michigan, Zenith is a new 25-story, 226-unit residential tower that reinterprets a golden age of downtown living for a new generation. Located in the heart of Juneau Town, the project responds to the character and history of the neighborhood’s 1920s-era residential fabric while forging its own distinct identity on the city’s skyline. As the first new luxury condominium high-rise developed in downtown Milwaukee in nearly two decades, Zenith marks a significant moment in the city’s residential evolution, reintroducing urban ownership in one of its most established residential districts.
Central to the design is a celebration of light and craft. Clad in light bronze folded metal panels and glass, the tower’s façade is articulated by a rhythmic system of vertical fins that give depth, texture, and movement to its surface. Oriented between Lake Michigan and the city, the façade engages the changing qualities of light throughout the day, catching the sunrise off the lake and transforming as golden hour rakes across its folded western surface. This shifting interplay of light animates the tower, reinforcing its presence as both a dynamic object and a living part of the skyline.
Zenith is studied in relation to Ascent, reading the two towers as a paired composition in the skyline.
At the base, the architecture responds to the scale and structure of the walkable district. Directly across from Milwaukee’s Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, A finely detailed brick and folded-metal podium anchors the tower to the street, with a façade organized by a regular cadence of windows, mullions, and string courses that reflect the permanence and detail of the civic setting. A covered street-level arcade defines the urban edge, reinforcing pedestrian movement and the building’s presence within the neighborhood.
