Nothing To Do With Sewing...

Yesterday I was asked by someone in my office to do something he classified as 'weird'.

OKAYYYY... I'm listening.

Someone was doing a proposal and they're looking for a way to use a building they're decommissioning.

Now, for the record, I work with wastewater engineers.  Sewer guys.  Yeah, ugh, THAT stuff.  They try to find the fastest, most efficient and cost effective way to turn dirty, stinky waste back into useable water to help mankind and the planet. 

 

 

 

Not exactly sexy stuff.  So when you are trying to sell it, you do whatever you can do to make it cool and important and whatever else the marketing department wants.

The request was for me to go get a cup of $8 coffee.  OK $3 coffee, or not even coffee since I don't drink coffee.

 

I am a 'bag lady' myself.  I have a cup of English Breakfast or Irish Breakfast Tea in the morning.  I love the smell of coffee and when it's good, it's really good, but when it's bad it's a waste of water.

 

So the request was to go to the Colectivo Coffee Shop in downtown Milwaukee on Lincoln Memorial Drive and take some photos of both inside and outside.  The reason is that this building was a pump station that belonged to the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District for years.  Since 1888 in fact.  And it was decommissioned and turned into a coffee shop.  We want to show a client that their building can be turned into something interesting without being completely demolished.

 

Here's a shot of the outside.



 

It is so super-cool... you can go up to the balcony and see the cream city brick walls and the old floors.  Those boards sticking out are floor joists for the second story.

This is the front patio, and it was such a beautiful day, I sat in an orange chair and drank my tea and ate a coffee cake muffin in the warm air.

Check out the front entrance...

Here's a guy working right next to the old pump station equipment.  You don't really want to know what that equipment did when it was working, but it looks pretty cool now!

And right across the street is the Yacht Club and Lake Michigan.

The front patio...

 And an old water wheel.  A nice architectural feature of the back parking lot.

I enjoyed the assignment immensely.  It's not often I get to go outside and sit in the sun  and get paid to do it!

 

Thanks for the weird assignment, Jim.

 

And so on...