A Wisconsin landmark gets a makeover. Two years in the making, renovations at Milwaukee's Mitchell Park Conservatory — the Domes — are complete. "When people come back, they're going to be kind of blown away, seriously," says Milwaukee County Parks Director Sue Black.
Black says the forty year old Domes needed a lot of attention. "I make a joke that the last time I was at the Domes I was 12 and I got off the bus," says Black. "You could tell that they needed to be reinvented. The needed a facelift, and they needed to appeal to this generation." Part of the reinvention includes being open evenings – until 7:00 PM Monday through Thursday – and the new hours drove the focus of the renovations: new, state of the art lighting.
The privately funded project includes a specialty LED lighting system in the Show dome. The other two domes, Arid and Tropical, also got new lighting, as did the lobby. Black's favorite time to visit the Domes? In the middle of a hard Wisconsin winter, of course.
