The Wisconsin Gas Building (originally Milwaukee Gas Light Building) is a classic stepped

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

tower located in downtown

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

at 626 East Wisconsin Avenue. It was designed by architects Eschweiler & Eschweiler and completed in 1930 using differing materials on the exterior to graduate from dark to light.

Description

MilwaukeeGasLightBuilding architecturaldetails

Locally distinct light colored

brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

called

Cream City brick Cream City brick is a cream or light yellow-colored brick made from a clay constructed around Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the Menomonee River Valley and on the western banks of Lake Michigan. These bricks were one of the most common building mater ...

crowns the high-rise. Copper panels adorn the

spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame, between the tops of two adjacent arches, or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fil ...

s, while organic foliage patterns and terracotta designs decorate the façade. The building stands 250 feet tall and has 20 floors. Demolished to make room for the building in 1930, a Prohibition-era speakeasy was formerly on the site. Wisconsin Gas was purchased by Wisconsin Energy in 2001. During the consolidation of Wisconsin Gas into Wisconsin Energy's neighboring downtown corporate headquarters, the Wisconsin Gas Building was sold to a developer in 2004 who converted it into leased office space. In 2025, the Wisconsin Gas Building went into foreclosure.

Weather flame

weather beacon A weather beacon is a beacon that indicates the local weather forecast in a code of colored or flashing lights. Often, a short poem or jingle accompanies the code to make it easier to remember. The beacon is usually on the roof of a tall build ...

shaped as a natural gas flame was added to the top of the Wisconsin Gas Building in 1956. It indicates the weather forecast by its color and flicker. The flame was turned off in 1973 because of that year's

energy crisis An energy crisis or energy shortage is any significant Bottleneck (production), bottleneck in the supply of energy resources to an economy. In literature, it often refers to one of the energy sources used at a certain time and place, in particu ...

. It was turned on again in 1985. The flame stands 21 feet tall and weighs four tons. In 2013, the neon tube lighting system was replaced with an LED lighting system. The new LED system allows millions of colors and various other lighting schemes outside the traditional red-gold-blue system, including charity efforts and sports team colors. There is a rhyme created to help remember the colors. Most of the rhyme is consistent, with variations in the final line: :When the flame is red, it's warm weather ahead. :When the flame is gold, watch out for cold. :When the flame is blue, there's no change in view. :When there's a flickering flame, expect snow or rain! and :When the flame is red, warm weather is ahead. :When the flame is gold, watch out for cold. :When the flame is blue, there's no change in view. :Where there's agitation, expect precipitation. The light has been used as a harbor marker and navigation aid by mariners in

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and depth () after Lake Superior and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the ...

over the years.

References

External links

* at Emporis
Developer converting gas building to office power

{{coord, 43.03940, -87.90296, format=dms, display=title, type:landmark Art Deco architecture in Wisconsin Skyscraper office buildings in Milwaukee Landmarks in Wisconsin Headquarters in the United States Office buildings completed in 1930 1930 establishments in Wisconsin