Milwaukee City Hall's Flemish Renaissance tower over the RiverWalk, and the marble bank hall Public Enemies used for its Depression era robbery.
What Downtown Milwaukee looks like
rises in orange red brick and terra cotta, its clock tower topped with a copper clad spire above four turret finials shaped like beer steins. The tower reaches 350 feet over an eight storey base, and an open atrium inside climbs eight floors to a skylight. Wells Street runs straight at the tower from the west, so the height fills the frame from several blocks back.
Several downtown bridges cross the Milwaukee River at an angle rather than square to the banks. The RiverWalk runs along both sides of the water for about twenty blocks, a paved promenade behind cafe railings and lamp posts, with charter boats and paddle boats tied up below street level. rises 601 feet in white aluminum and glass over a belt truss frame, the tallest building between Chicago and Minneapolis.
The occupies a former bank building on North Old World Third Street, a curved pale stone corner with paired arched windows and a fluted cornice above the door. Its interior keeps the original marble banking hall. Next to it, is an open lawn along the river with a domed white pavilion at its edge and paddle boats moored at the bank. The 's brick and glass front faces a wide plaza on Wisconsin Avenue, a digital display built into its gabled roofline.
Shot in Downtown Milwaukee
Public Enemies used the marble banking hall inside the Milwaukee County Historical Society building for the 2009 film's Greencastle robbery scene. Decades earlier, Milwaukee City Hall's illuminated marquee appeared in the opening titles of the sitcom Laverne & Shirley, welcoming visitors across the tower's three tiers of lettering.
Public Enemies, 2009
Milwaukee County Historical Society
The marble banking hall inside the former Second Ward Savings Bank was used for the film's Greencastle robbery scene interior. The exterior and the getaway shown on screen belong to a different former bank building in Columbus, Wisconsin, about seventy miles away; only the marble hall itself is this address. Street View
Laverne & Shirley
Milwaukee City Hall
The tower once carried an illuminated marquee across its front three sides, its changing messages welcoming visitors and conventions; an image of it reading Welcome Milwaukee Visitors opened the ABC sitcom's every episode. The marquee was removed in 1988 and its lettering went to the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design; the clock faces and the copper spire above it are unchanged. Street View
What Downtown Milwaukee can double for
Rathausmarkt in Hamburg, Germany
Milwaukee City Hall's tower stands on the same Renaissance Revival model as Hamburg's own Rathaus, with matching clock faces, steep gabled roofs and copper spires. Modern buses and European road markings in a wide shot give Hamburg away, so a tight angle on the tower itself holds the match best. Try searching Renaissance Revival clock tower now.
Monument Circle in Indianapolis, Indiana
Downtown Indianapolis pairs a nineteenth century civic monument at Monument Circle with a canal walk lined by office towers a few blocks away, the same combination of an older civic landmark and a modern glass skyline as the RiverWalk here. Indianapolis's canal runs straighter and narrower than the Milwaukee River, so a curving stretch of water holds the comparison better than a straight channel. Try searching downtown canal walk skyline now.
Canal Park in Duluth, Minnesota
A paved lakefront promenade with moored boats and a mixed skyline of older brick buildings and newer towers gives Canal Park a similar waterfront character to the RiverWalk here. Duluth's aerial lift bridge and the open lake behind it are distinctive, so a shot along the water rather than toward the bridge holds the comparison better. Try searching lakefront promenade moored boats now.
