DOORS OPEN MKE 2013: LOYALTY BUILDING

This year's Doors Open Milwaukee event featured what I consider a real hidden gem, the Loyalty Building.  I guess that I had always considered it just another of Milwaukee's many older downtown buildings.  But then Hilton acquired the property and converted it from a worn-out office building to a beautiful boutique hotel.  Here is a very indifferent photo of the building's somewhat indifferent exterior.

Here I just wanted to document the building and didn't have the patience to wait for the streets to clear of traffic or for the shadow on the south side of the building to disappear.  There is nothing wrong with the exterior and I know that the hotel has cleaned it up nicely, which presents some better than average archwork.

However, the real beauty of this building is in its central skylight and four-story atrium.

Because of how extensive the skylight is, I didn't have the problems with lighting that I had had with the Grain Exchange featured in my prior post.  Here are some additional shots that feature the skylight and atrium.

I particularly liked this last shot, which shows great symmetry.

I thought the base of the staircase created an interesting abstract, but there was constant traffic due to the Doors Open event, and I just didn't have the patience to wait until the traffic cleared.  So I took a tighter shot of the staircase than I would have preferred.

Something to return for on another day perhaps.

The staircase railing also offered very nice detail, as reflected in the following shots.

Perhaps because I hadn't expected it, this was my favorite venue of the Doors Open event this year.

John