DOORS OPEN MILWAUKEE 2012: CITY CENTER AT 735

My next stop on the Doors Open Milwaukee tour was the office building at 735 N. Water Street.  This edifice, though now lost amongst the other commercial and office buildings in downtown Milwaukee, has some historical significance.  At one point, before Milwaukee began constructing legitimate high rise office buildings, this building had been the headquarters for what had been Milwaukee's largest bank, First Wisconsin (now part of US Bank).  It has also been home to a number of law firms that I have worked with over the years.  Beginning several years ago, the building had undergone very significant renovation, especially in the lobby areas.  That renovation has now been completed, and I was interested to see what had been done.  I was not disappointed.

The building, which now goes by the name City Center at 735, is a relatively nondescript turn-of-the-20th-century building on the exterior that backs up onto the Milwaukee River.  It has the advantage that it has generous windows on its east side that allow ample light into the lobby areas.  I found it to be very tastefully done, with an understated color palate and classic fixtures.

The first shot is not so impressive, but I wanted to capture the reflection of the light fixtures in the marble floors.

Here is an attempt to capture the fixtures against the high ceilings.

And here are a couple of closeups of the lighting fixtures.

I liked the surreal look of this second shot.  Given the ample available light, most of these shots were taken at an ISO of 100.

One of the walls in the lobby area was mirrored, or at least highly reflective, and I was eager to try to capture that reflection.  In this first shot my goal was to have the reflection carry through the windows.

Not bad, but the better shots, I thought, were ones that featured the mirrored wall straight on, as shown in the following shots.

I wish I could have excluded the bands of direct sunlight slanting across a part of the floor.

Here is a closer shot of the mirroring.

This shot does serve to exclude those bands of light, and it does a nice job of carrying through the reflections of the lighting fixtures in the mirroring.  However, I thought it lost some perspective.

The best shot, I felt, was one that took a wider view.

There is a lot going on here, but the different elements seem to hold together well.

Taken with my Nikon D7000 with Nikkor 24-120 mm f/4 lens.