Construction crews have begun the multi-year process of rebuilding
Northwestern Mutual’s downtown North Office building from the inside out.
Northwestern Mutual announced a year ago its plans to overhaul the 1990 building at its headquarters campus into a modern office building mirroring the neighboring Tower and Commons that Northwestern Mutual completed in 2017. The $500 million project prepares the insurance giant to move about 2,000 workers to downtown Milwaukee from its campus in Franklin.
Northwestern Mutual is stripping the building, located at 818 E. Mason St., down to its core. Media toured the building Thursday as demolition continues.
The North Office Building at Northwestern Mutual’s downtown Milwaukee headquarters campus, with the Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons building in the foreground.
Demolition started late last year with interior work.
Much of the building’s furniture and interior building materials have been recycled, said Tracy Lutterman, Northwestern Mutual assistant director of workplace and project solutions.
Crews have also erected a 385-foot tower crane that will be used to remove exterior pieces of the building. The crane is in the exact same place as when the building was built more than 30 years ago, according to Vince Senese, project executive with Rhode Island-based Gilbane Building Co.
“Gilbane Building Co. built this building in 1990,” Senese said. “As part of our planning, we thought, ‘We did it this way last time, let’s do it again.’ How we built it is how we’re reconstructing it.”
Gilbane is working in partnership with Milwaukee’s CG Schmidt Inc. on the North Office building project. These two, like many on the project team, also worked together on the Tower and Commons project.
In the coming months, crews will start removing exterior pieces of the building.
In order to improve the safety of the project, crews will be installing a mast climber to assist with disassembling the exterior. Mast climbers are an elevated platform, which gives workers an extra 6 to 8 feet of space to perform work at height, according to Greg Ratzburg, project safety manager with Gilbane.
“From a safety standpoint it’s going to be awesome,” said Ratzburg. “We won’t have guys hanging off the side, worrying about some swings and stuff like that.”
The following construction work will add a new glass curtain wall to the exterior and expand some of the floors to give the east-facing side of the building a curve, creating more interior floor space in the process. New mechanical and electrical systems will be added, along with the modern interior finishes.
By 2027, the North Office building will look like a shorter version of the neighboring Tower and Commons.
As part of the project, Northwestern Mutual will extend the North Office building’s lobby westward. North Cass Street has been permanently closed between East Mason and East Wells streets to accommodate the building’s publicly-accessible low-rise addition, which will include a public conservatory, rentable event space, and a food and beverage establishment.
