Public Service Building (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)

The Public Service Building is a four-story neoclassical Beaux-Arts office building occupying a whole city block in Downtown Milwaukee. Featuring a two-story marble lobby, stained-glass skylights, and an auditorium, it was originally designed as a mixed-use facility serving both interurban passengers and office workers of The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company (TMER&L). An arch surrounding the entrance depicts technological progress in transportation: first as a horse-drawn streetcar, then as an electric streetcar. In the lobby, a copper art piece shows bees buzzing around a beehive, representing the amount of activity occurring inside. Rail vehicles formerly entered and exited the building through multiple ground-level access points. A skyway connects the Public Service Building with a second building that, together, form the downtown headquarters for We Energies. == History ==

Interurban terminal TMER&L used the Public Service Building as a terminal for its interurban services since its opening in 1905. By the early 1940s, more passengers were boarding buses operated by Greyhound Lines at the building than trains. Train service had extended as far as East Troy and Watertown, but shrank during the 1940s, only going as far as Waukesha and Hales Corners before ending completely in 1951. Post-interurban era Following the end of train service, tracks and platforms were removed from the building, converting it to solely office space. However, the former ticket booth still remains. A fifth floor was added in 1956, but was removed during a renovation in the 1990s. The initial estimate to repair the building was $10 million; by the end of the project, $62 million had been spent. Repairs took 18 months to complete, and had the disaster happened later in the pandemic, supply chain disruptions could have lengthened the timeline by a year. The repairs provided an opportunity to reconfigure the building so that outdated paper record storage rooms could be repurposed as additional work space. In December 2021, restoration was complete, and the Public Service Building was reopened. == Recognition ==

The Public Service Building has been placed on the Wisconsin State Register of Historic Places since 1997 and the National Register of Historic Places since 1998. == See also ==