Clock Shadow Creamery Building

A four-story “green” building focused on sustainable building techniques and products was developed on an urban brownfield site in the Walker’s Point neighborhood of Milwaukee. The building houses the Clock Tower Creamery, Wisconsin’s first urban cheese factory and other businesses focused on environmental impact, energy consumption, and wastewater re-use.

GRAEF provided site/civil and structural engineering services for the 28,500 square foot mixed use facility. The site had previously been the home to various industrial facilities and was considered a brownfield re-development with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) and required remediation measures.

Site/civil engineers were challenged with incorporating a geothermal heating and cooling system that uses the wastewater temperature to help heat and cool the structure. This system required replacing 500 feet of public combined sewer with a proprietary sewer pipe that contains the heat exchanger and supply and return lines.

The building contains over one half reused materials and was built by with practically no waste. The building includes a rooftop garden and rainwater reuse system, a power generating elevator and many other ecological innovations.

The project earned a 2013 Mayor’s Design Award.