Freshwater Plaza

Freshwater Plaza :: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage District and an architect from the University of Wisconsin called upon Aquascape Construction to create a green infrastructure for capturing rainwater run-off from a newly constructed building on the south side of Milwaukee. A series of rectilinear pools was paired with a wetland filter to manage and detoxify the stormwater run-off. Numerous spillways discharge the water into a series of cascading pools, adding beauty to this urban style feature which stores up to 30,000 gallons of filtered rainwater in a sub-surface reservoir. New technology is connected to a weather-based radar system to be alerted of an incoming rainstorm. The system automatically drains the reservoir into the storm system to make room for the new rain. Managing stormwater this way is more sustainable with the water being recirculated throughout the decorative water feature for further filtration.