Behind the Scenes: Baird Center
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Whether you're seeing it from the sky or walking by downtown, the Baird Center is beautiful from every angle. But really, it's what's on the inside that counts.
"It's just different, it doesn't fit the mold of traditional architecture in Milwaukee...I want to sing and shout about how wonderful this property is," said Marty Brooks.
Baird Center
At the heart of the Baird Center renovation, expansion and renaming is Marty Brooks, president and CEO of Wisconsin Center District.
"This is your hello, welcome...and then all over the place there are all kinds of little wow, wow, wow. You're in for a lot of wow," said Brooks.
Marty Brooks
Both the brand-new north building and renovated south building make the convention center about double the size it was before, with more meeting rooms, better accommodations for employees, and 1.3 million-square-feet with 300,000-feet of exhibition space, making it easier to host more events in the city at the same time.
"We really wanted to anticipate any and every use that a meeting planner could have for this space," said Brooks.
And Brooks has been involved with every detail.
"I have sat in every piece of furniture before it was selected. We didn't purchase anything that I didn't find comfortable," Brooks said.
But making people really feel comfortable here is deeper than the decor.
"We have two of these in the north building - sensory rooms...nursing mother rooms. What we did differently in the all-gender restrooms, trying to be respectful, trying to be thoughtful, is the stalls go just to-just to the ceiling," said Brooks.
Even the art makes a statement, with 63% of it made by people from Wisconsin -- like this mural made by a Madison couple that you can see from every floor.
"The diversity of our state and city is seen in the diversity of our art," Brooks said.
"A lot of the art that we have in here is to give people an idea, not just of the Wisconsin Center, the Baird Center, but of what we have in Wisconsin," said Brooks. "It's a sampling of the Great Lakes and nature, all in one building."
"We've now arrived on the Baird Ballroom level...hopefully I get a 'wow' out of you," Brooks said.
The ballroom level took crews more than a million hours to create over the last four years, with a cost of $456 million.
"This is the Baird Ballroom. It's 30,000-square-feet, this is where our opening night gala will be," Brooks said.
It's in the Baird Ballroom where Brooks gets choked up.
"I have been in this room well over 100 times. My heart is racing. I....get very emotional. I get overwhelmed because it is just spectacular, beyond what I dreamed it could be," said Brooks.
Baird Center
After 20 years of an expansion in the works, Brooks was hired to actually make it happen, and the road wasn't easy.
"This has been a heavy lift for a lot of people," said Brooks. "It took a lot of people to say yes, this makes sense, this makes sense for Milwaukee. Even though we got hit with Covid and we had supply chain issues early on, and the cost of steel and concrete went up 30%."
Brooks never gave up and with his vision, ended up turning what was a surface parking lot into a sight with arguably the best rooftop view in the Cream City.
"Was there a time during Covid when you thought this wasn't going to happen?" we asked.
"No," he said. "I was concerned but I wasn't going to stop until somebody told me to stop talking about it."
"Here we are, May 16 of 2024, opening this girl up. That's why I am so emotional," he said. "I am just so appreciative and thankful for all the people who worked on this."
Baird Center