U.S. Bank Center

skyscraper
international-style
WI
Milwaukee

About the U.S. Bank Center in Milwaukee
1. Prizes & Awards
Architect and team
Architectural style
Spaces and uses
Structure and materials

The U.S. Bank Center is an International Style skyscraper designed between 1969 and 1971 by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, with Bruce Graham as lead architect, in association with Fitzhugh Scott Architects, and built between 1971 and 1973, for a reported $50.0 million dollars, in Milwaukee, WI.

U.S. Bank Center is not the only name you might know this building by though. It is common for companies to want to attach their names to iconic buildings when they move in, or for the general public to come up with nicknames, and this one is no exception. The building has changed names several times over the years, and is also known as:

First Wisconsin Center between 1973 and 1992.
Firstar Center between 1992 and 2002.
U.S. Bank Center from 2002 until this day.

Its precise street address is 777 East Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI. You can also find it on the map here.

In 1974 the U.S. Bank Center was awarded with the Distinguished Building Award.

At the time of its inauguration, the building had an observation deck on the 41st floor that visitors could access. In 1991, the deck was closed at the request of the law firm that leases the top floors, since, lacking independent access, one had to pass through their offices to reach it. In 2011, the deck reopened for some events but was closed again soon after.

Building's timeline

Design begins

1969

Construction begins

1971

First Wisconsin Center

1973

Firstar Center

1992

U.S. Bank Center

2002

years ago

2025

Architect and team

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, with Bruce Graham as the lead architect, was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design, in association with Fitzhugh Scott Architects.

Commonly known as SOM, the firm was founded in Chicago in 1936 and has grown to be one of the largest architecture firms in the world.

Even long after its founders passed away, SOM has remained at the top of worldwide architectural excellence by attracting visionary architects. Amongst their most notorious partners we find names such as Gordon Bunshaft, Bruce Graham, Walter Netsch, Adrian Smith, Myron Goldsmith or David Childs.

SOM has also managed to grow and evolve to tackle the architectural challenges of each time, whatever those might be, and today is committed to aspects as important as efficiency and sustainability, as core values of their designs.

With a legacy spanning decades, SOM continues to shape the skylines of cities around the world, and is a usual contestant in any competition or selection process to design large-scale or iconic buildings and structures.

That being said, architecture is a complex discipline involving many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but here is a list of the people we do know also played their part in making the U.S. Bank Center a reality:

Fazlur Rahman Khan in charge of Structural Engineering
Morse Diesel International as the Main Contractor

Architectural Style

The U.S. Bank Center can be categorized as an International Style building.

The international style originated in Europe in the early 20th century, and made its way to the US a couple of decades later when the rise of the Nazi regime forced figures such as Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, or Mies van der Rohe to flee Europe.

The International Style emerged as a response to the prevailing historicism and ornate architecture styles of the late 19th century, which according to a younger generation of architects didn't represent the new materials and construction techniques that were on the rise at the time.

Architecture in the early 20th century US was marked by the adoption of steel structures, modern construction techniques, and the rise of the skyscraper. As it turns out, this combination of circumstances created the perfect ecosystem for the International Style to flourish, becoming the to-go style for skyscraper designs during the mid-20th century, when American cities were growing fast.

The International Style’s legacy can not only be found in numerous iconic buildings across all major American cities, but also incorporated in contemporary architecture, which still puts a big emphasis on functionality and minimalism.

The U.S. Bank Center was designed in 1969. By 1969 the International Style movement had already left its early days behind and could be considered a mature movement, which does not mean it was loved and accepted by everyone, on the contrary. The International Style was accepted by the architecture community way before it was by the general public, and it is therefore likely that the U.S. Bank Center was not well received by everyone at the time.

Spaces & Uses

The U.S. Bank Center reaches an architectural height of 600ft (183m). It has a total of 42 floors, served by 20 elevators.

In regards to parking space, the building has a total of 980 spots available, which roughly equals 23 spots per floor (above ground).

Ever since opening its doors to the public in 1973, the U.S. Bank Center has mainly been used as Commercial space.

An elevated passageway and another underground one provide access to an adjacent six-story parking garage with 980 spaces.

Materials & Structure

The exposed truss belts on the facades perform both load-bearing and lateral stability functions, while additional trusses located beneath the lobby floor provide complementary structural reinforcement.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features dark-tinted glass framed by white aluminum vertical and horizontal bands. This creates a regular grid, only interrupted by diagonal trusses on the first floor of the tower, roughly one-third of the way up, and along the top section.

Another material found at the U.S. Bank Center is Italian Travertine marble, used in the cladding of the grand entrance atrium.