Community Design Solutions (CDS) at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee has launched a new collaboration with Milwaukee City Parks that brings together sustainability, design education, and civic stewardship.
Partnering with Associate Professor Alex Timmer and the Design and Construction Initiative, the team is developing park infrastructure that can be fabricated using urban wood reclaimed from trees removed throughout the city.
“This creates a meaningful closed-loop system,” CDS Director Krisann Rehbein said. “Trees that once shaded Milwaukee’s streets and parks are being transformed into public amenities that will continue serving residents for years to come.”
The project began with a hands-on workshop at UWM’s School of Architecture & Urban Planning (SARUP), where students explored what makes public seating both functional and welcoming. CDS hosted the session and invited students to participate in a “seating scavenger hunt” across campus, studying different bench designs and how people interact with them.
The exercise helped students identify what works and what doesn’t when designing for diverse users and public environments.
“The project taught us that designing for the public isn’t always about the aesthetic appeal,” Bachelor of Architecture student Ariel Johnson said. “It’s about the ability to maintain inclusion while also keeping a majority of the community satisfied or physically comfortable with a design.”
An important component of the workshop was a lesson in ergonomics led by Suzanna Tomich Waterfield from UWM’s College of Health Professions & Sciences. Her insights helped students better understand comfort, accessibility, support, and the physical factors that influence how people experience public seating.
Using those insights, students created preliminary bench concepts, with selected participants now advancing into a paid internship phase. During this stage, students will refine their ideas, iterate on their designs, and build full-scale prototypes.
The long-term vision is for Milwaukee City Parks to fabricate the final designs through the skilled carpenters and welders of the Department of Public Works (DPW), turning student work into city-built park infrastructure that can be deployed across neighborhoods, while leveraging an existing partnership between DPW Forestry and Kettle Moraine Hardwoods to provide urban wood.
“Custom solutions designed to be fabricated by DPW skilled tradespeople, from materials sourced by DPW arborists, and installed by DPW laborers can be less expensive, more functional, and more durable than off-the-shelf options,” Milwaukee City Parks Manager Joseph Kaltenberg said. “They also keep our dollars here in Milwaukee, supporting local families with good jobs and fair wages.”
The collaboration reflects CDS’s ongoing commitment to community-oriented design and sustainable construction practices. It also strengthens connections between UWM students, faculty, and municipal partners while giving emerging designers real-world experience creating solutions for public spaces.
“When designing our schemes as a team, our experiences, collaboration, and roundtable discussions challenged us to think critically about design possibilities and begin thinking outside of the box,” Master of Architecture student Ryan Hernandez said.
“Working alongside faculty and city partners showed us firsthand how design decisions translate beyond the classroom.”