Wisconsin Gas Building_DSC0468
Wisconsin Gas Building (originally Milwaukee Gas Light Building) 626 East Wisconsin Ave. Day 12 Vacation 2016. The 250’, 20-story is an excellent example of the stepped or setback Art Deco tower. It was designed by Milwaukee architects Eschweiler & Eschweiler and completed in 1930 using differing materials on the exterior to graduate from dark to light. The two-story base in made of Morton Gneiss (Rainbow Granite). The quarry has been in operation for over eighty years. In the 1920s, it was purchased by the Rockville Granite Company, the present Cold Spring Granite Company. The pinkish buff stone used for trim and ornamentation at the setback levels is Mankato-Kasota Limestone, a Minnesota River valley limestone quarried north of Mankato, Minnesota. www4.uwm.edu/letsci/geosciences/trips_tours/urban_geo_new...
Ziggurat shaped recalls early Babylonian or Mayan designs. 20 story Aztec-like temple of the gas light industry following the Paris Arts-Decoratif Exposition in 1925. Day 12 Vacation 2016.
A 21’ weather beacon shaped as a natural gas flame was added to the top of the Wisconsin Gas Building in 1956. It indicates the weather forecast by its color and flicker. The flame was turned off in 1973 because of that year's energy crisis. It was turned on again in 1985. The flame stands 21 feet tall and weighs four tons. In 2013, the neon tube lighting system was replaced with an LED lighting system. The new LED system allows millions of colors and various other lighting schemes outside the traditional red-gold-blue system, including charity efforts and sports team colors. Day 12 Vacation 2016.
Wisconsin Gas Building_DSC0468
Wisconsin Gas Building (originally Milwaukee Gas Light Building) 626 East Wisconsin Ave. Day 12 Vacation 2016. The 250’, 20-story is an excellent example of the stepped or setback Art Deco tower. It was designed by Milwaukee architects Eschweiler & Eschweiler and completed in 1930 using differing materials on the exterior to graduate from dark to light. The two-story base in made of Morton Gneiss (Rainbow Granite). The quarry has been in operation for over eighty years. In the 1920s, it was purchased by the Rockville Granite Company, the present Cold Spring Granite Company. The pinkish buff stone used for trim and ornamentation at the setback levels is Mankato-Kasota Limestone, a Minnesota River valley limestone quarried north of Mankato, Minnesota. www4.uwm.edu/letsci/geosciences/trips_tours/urban_geo_new...
Ziggurat shaped recalls early Babylonian or Mayan designs. 20 story Aztec-like temple of the gas light industry following the Paris Arts-Decoratif Exposition in 1925. Day 12 Vacation 2016.
A 21’ weather beacon shaped as a natural gas flame was added to the top of the Wisconsin Gas Building in 1956. It indicates the weather forecast by its color and flicker. The flame was turned off in 1973 because of that year's energy crisis. It was turned on again in 1985. The flame stands 21 feet tall and weighs four tons. In 2013, the neon tube lighting system was replaced with an LED lighting system. The new LED system allows millions of colors and various other lighting schemes outside the traditional red-gold-blue system, including charity efforts and sports team colors. Day 12 Vacation 2016.