Cream City~Windy City

The story of two German immigrants who found success serving beer in Milwaukee and Chicago but, when Prohibition hit in 1920, were faced with the greatest challenge to their thriving businesses.

This is the story of a nationally acclaimed architecture firm--one with several talented family members and an over 80 year history—a firm that left its mark on Chicago and Milwaukee …but is not as widely known today.

It is also the story of a magnificent Chicago church that the firm designed which is currently threatened with destruction.  Preservation Chicago has named the city’s historic Catholic Churches to the 2021 Most Endangered list …and underscored the plight of this church.  We will take a look at what’s at stake for this church, and, unfortunately, for too many historic churches.

A new kind of American hotel emerged in the 1920s: massive, packed with amenities for both leisure and business travelers, technologically sophisticated, and elegant. Two fine examples of these grand hotels were located in Milwaukee and Chicago and both were designed by architects Holabird & Roche. A look into all that made these hotels quite amazing.

They both came from Milwaukee, but their paths often crossed at the Palmer House Empire Room in Chicago.  They both went by single names.  They both became international singing piano stars known for glamorous, flamboyant style.  She was 13 years older and a major inspiration to him.  They both became LGBTQ icons: she and her partner are celebrated as the first out lesbian couple in entertainment, while he remained closeted his entire life, but found ways to live his identity.

You no doubt know of him: Liberace.

There’s a fair chance you’ve not heard of her: Hildegarde.

We look at the Father of Landscape Architecture, Frederick Law Olmsted, who had an outsize impact on Milwaukee and Chicago.   Olmsted designed some of Milwaukee and Chicago’s most exquisitely conceived parks.  The early 1890s found him working on projects in both cities - including the 1893 Chicago World's Fair - traveling back and forth by train the 90 miles between Chicago and Milwaukee.

The story of two Bronzevilles, the historic African American neighborhoods in Chicago and Milwaukee, and the connections between the two. They share a complex story of struggle and pain, resilience and regeneration. It is a story that begins one century ago and a story that lives on today.

It was a restaurant concept especially suited for midcentury America, when the excitement of modern skyscrapers and the thrill of new heights combined with the perennial pleasures of food, drink, and company to create indelible memories.

We explore the stories of the two cities’ water towers, two iconic structures that have much more in common than their original function.

We look at an architect who left a formidable legacy in Chicago and Milwaukee, but who is not as widely recognized as he should be.

The voice familiar to all Chicagoans has a connection to Milwaukee.