Key Takeaways:
- Klode Park warming house: First look at initial designs below. Concepts will be refined before a public survey will be released for residents’ feedback.
- Elmbrook’s $100M referendum: District approves a facilities referendum question for November’s ballot to update and expand four aging schools from the ’50s and ’60s.
The Village Board got a first look at draft concepts for the rebuilding of the Klode Park warming house. Here’s the rundown, plus another item worth your attention.
Klode Park Warming House: Three Initial Concepts
The village recently appropriated $1.5 million to replace the aging Klode Park warming house, and earlier this year approved a contract with the GROTH Design Group to lead the design and construction. Since then, GROTH has held two open houses as well as sessions with the Civic Foundation and Business Improvement District to gather early input. Monday’s presentation to the board was the next step: three initial design concepts, aimed not at picking a “winner” but at discussing feedback to narrow the field before taking something to a broader community survey.
Scroll the images below to see each version presented:
After a detailed back-and-forth discussion, covering everything from mechanical room placement, to where a band should face during a concert, to whether large windows make a rented space feel too “exposed” for something like a funeral reception, the board converged on a few takeaways, including:
- Bathrooms should be accessible from both indoors and outdoors
- The building needs to look good from all sides, particularly the Lake Drive-facing side, since that will be how most Villagers will see it day to day
- The board would like a standalone, detached pavilion/band shell (directing music toward the lake) in addition to an attached covered overhang or patio on the main building itself
- Architectural details may be added to make the building reflect similar architecture found in the Village.
- Residents like the fireplace at Cahill – keep that in this design.
The tentative plan going forward appeared to be to develop two refined concepts using the feedback provided.
No formal vote was needed Monday as this was a discussion item to guide next steps. Look for the refined concepts and a public survey in the coming weeks.
The anticipated construction schedule estimates that the warming house will be completed before the end of 2027.
Elsewhere in Wisconsin: Elmbrook Puts $100M Referendum on the Ballot
For anyone tracking how other Wisconsin districts are navigating the same facilities-and-referendum landscape that Whitefish Bay is working through, the Elmbrook School Board voted this month to put a $100 million facilities referendum on the November ballot. Like Whitefish Bay, the Elmbrook district is high performing and shares many demographic/median income similarities. It encompasses Brookfield, Elm Grove and parts of New Berlin. This will be the district’s first referendum since 2008, when voters passed a $62 million referendum. The Journal Sentinel covered the story here.
The package would fund infrastructure upgrades and ADA improvements at four aging schools built between 1958 and 1969, plus building additions at two of them. It pairs with a separate $71 million in planned facilities/maintenance spending funded through the district’s regular operating budget over the next decade.
If approved, the district shared that the tax impact would be a modest increase of about $66 more per year for the owner of a $600,000 home. The Elmbrook School district encompasses a much larger population and tax base than Whitefish Bay’s. The district serves over 7,800 students at 10 schools relative to Whitefish Bay’s more than 2,800 students across four schools.
The Elmbrook district’s 20 year facilities plan can be found here. Warning, they use BoardDocs too!
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