The city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is home to 119 high-rise buildings or skyscrapers,[1] 55 of which stand at 200feet or taller. The majority of the city's tallest buildings are located north of the Interstate 794, south of Juneau Avenue, east of Interstate 43, and west of Lincoln Memorial Drive. There are additional high-rises extending northward along Lake Michigan. The tallest building in Milwaukee, and Wisconsin, is the 42-story, 601feet tall U.S. Bank Center, which was completed in 1973.[2] The second-tallest is the 32-story, 550feet tall Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons building, completed in 2017.[3] [4]
The history of skyscrapers in Milwaukee began with the Pabst Building. Completed in 1891, and standing 235feet tall, it was Milwaukee's first skyscraper, and the tallest building in the city until the Milwaukee City Hall was completed four years later. The Pabst Building was demolished in 1981. For nearly eighty years, from 1895 to 1973, City Hall dominated the skyline, and was at the time of its completion, the tallest habitable building in the United States.[5] A significant building boom occurred in the 1960s, resulting in eleven of the top sixteen tallest buildings of the time having been built in that decade, and then between 1985 and 1991, six of the eight tallest buildings of the time were constructed. But a third significant building boom in the twenty-first century includes the construction of the Moderne, a skyscraper with luxury condominiums, the 833 East Michigan office building, the Potawatomi Casino Hotel, the Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons, the 25-story, 335feet tall BMO Financial Center, and the 34-story, 387feet tall 7Seventy7 Residential tower, all built since 2012. Future under-construction or approved skyscrapers include the 44-story, 537feet tall Couture, a mixed-use tower with high-end residential apartments and retail space, the mass timber Ascent MKE, and the resurrected 27-story, 301feet tall Goll Mansion Apartment Tower, resulting in ten of the sixteen tallest buildings in the city having been constructed since 2005.[6] Another six high-rises have been proposed since the beginning of 2017.
This list ranks the fifty tallest Milwaukee skyscrapers based on standard height measurement. This includes spires and architectural details, but does not include antenna masts. The "Year" column indicates the year of completion.
| Rank | Name | Image | Height ft / m | Floors | Year | Notes | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | U.S. Bank Center | 601feet | 42 | 1973 | Tallest building in the state; previously called the First Wisconsin Center (1973–92) and the Firstar Center (1992–2002). The building won a Distinguished Building Award from the Chicago Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1974. | [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] | |
| 2 | Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons | 550feet | 32 | 2017 | Largest building in Wisconsin by square footage, and the second-tallest in the state. | [12] [13] [14] [15] | |
| 3 | 100 East Wisconsin | 549feet | 37 | 1989 | Designed as a postmodern version of old German vernacular architecture and built on the site of the former 14-story Pabst skyscraper, this was the second tallest building in the state for 28 years. | [16] [17] [18] | |
| 4 | The Couture | 507feet | 44 | 2024 | Tallest residential building in the state of Wisconsin. | [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] |