More Than a Museum

Subs, Suppliers Rev Engines For Harley-Davidson History

by Sheila Bacon

Ben Goetter has come to expect the regular inquiries from a certain restroom partitions supplier in Texas.

The Mortenson Construction project manager has taken a number of phone calls—at least one every month since last October—from the man who wants to be sure he doesn’t miss out on an opportunity to be part of the construction of the new Harley-Davidson Museum.

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The bid process for the museum’s interiors is still months away, but the supplier’s persistence underscores the building community’s intense interest in the landmark job.

“Our bidders’ lists have companies on them from all around the country,” says Goetter, who is with the Milwaukee office of the Minneapolis-based construction manager. “I get calls every day from people wanting to bid on work. Everyone wants to be part of this historic project.”

The $75 million museum is expected to open to visitors in summer 2008, just in time for the iconic motorcycle company’s 105th anniversary. The three-building, 130,000-sq-ft museum is built on a 20-acre industrial site at Sixth and Canal streets near downtown Milwaukee—the city where Harley-Davidson was founded. Groundbreaking occurred June 1, 2006.

The museum is about 15 minutes from the Capitol Drive Powertrain Operations facility and 25 mintues from the Pilgrim Road Powertrain Operations. HD’s corporate offices are about 10 minutes away on Juneau Avenue in Milwaukee. Final motorcycle assembly occurs in York, Pa., and Kansas City, Mo.

The museum will include a restaurant, café, gift store and event space; along with numerous exhibits such as a chronological procession of legendary Harley-Davidson motorcycles and paperwork proving that Elvis Presley purchased a Harley-Davidson motorcycle just before he became famous with the hit single, “Heartbreak Hotel.”

The design of the museum draws from the industrial nature of Milwaukee and the Harley-Davidson brand itself, says Stacey Schiesel, the museum’s director.

“We looked to the forms and shapes seen in factories” to help create the museum’s design, which is rich in brick, glass and steel, Schiesel says.

Merging Indoors, Outdoors

The campus includes the 58,318-sq-ft main museum building; 45,632-sq-ft building housing archives, special exhibit spaces and offices; and 27,978-sq-ft structure that includes the eating and retail areas and event space. The site also incorporates gathering areas around the three buildings as well as green spaces adjacent to the Menomonee River.

The multifaceted aspect of the site’s design was a concept that architects focused on early in the process.

“Our initial idea was that maybe this wants to be more than a single building,” says Jim Vander Heiden, principal with Hammel, Green and Abrahamson’s Milwaukee office, the museum’s architect of record. HGA partnered with design architect Pentagram of New York on the building’s design.

“The experience Harley Davidson riders have is largely outdoors. We created a place where enthusiasts can have an experience not only inside the buildings but outside on the grounds as well.”

The campus’ three buildings front a “Main Street”-style road design that not only mimics the downtown streets of Sturgis, S.D., and Daytona Beach, Fla.—homes of the well-known Harley-Davidson Bike Week motorcycle rallies—but also incorporates into the site’s historic street grid. Visitors will be able to ride their motorcycles onto the museum’s campus.

Architects went beyond the typical information exchange and company research when creating the museum’s design, says Vander Heiden. The design team had several day-long meetings with company leaders during which Harley-Davidson’s history, philosophy and culture were discussed.

“We found that probably the most important aspect of owning a Harley-Davidson motorcycle is the riders’ respect for and relationship with the company, and mostly, other riders,” says Vander Heiden. “It’s like belonging to a large organization or club. When you own a Harley, you are ‘one of them.’ There’s a spirit there that’s really hard to define until you visit and talk with them about it.”

The attention on the Harley-Davidson fan is intentional, Scheisel says. Discussions during the design development phase centered around creating a space that celebrated the visitors above all else.

“We wanted to build and strengthen bonds with current riders and let new people share and learn about the Harley-Davidson experience,” Scheisel says.

The west facade of the museum building underscores this mission. A glass curtain wall breaks down the barrier between inside and outside. Not only can passersby enjoy an unobstructed view of the building’s interior, but those inside get a front row view of visitors’ motorcycles that they’ve parked just outside.

“We’ve created a museum on the street,” Scheisel says.

Exposing the Structure

Assembling the museum’s structural elements has been one of the most challenging aspects of the Harley-Davidson Museum’s construction, says Mortenson’s Goetter.

More than 1,200 tons of structural galvanized steel will remain exposed, requiring a gentle hand during erection and beyond. Chains typically used to lift structural elements on most construction sites are off limits here, since they can scratch the vulnerable galvanized surface. And once the structure is in place, contractors must remain vigilant while installing ductwork, hanging drywall and performing other building tasks.

The same attention is given to the exposed aggregate concrete floors, which won’t be concealed later with carpeting or hardwoods.

Mortenson crews have focused on preplanning efforts with their subcontractors, emphasizing the need to tread carefully amidst the sensitive structure.

“It’s not typical for contractors to have to work around a finished product,” Goetter says. “Contractors can usually drop hammers because the floors are covered up later.”

The four steel towers alongside the museum building are not just iconic elements. Three of the towers, clad in louvers, were designed in part to house the bulk of the museum’s mechanical systems, which enabled designers to leave the low-lying roofs, which are visible from many parts of the city, free of mechanical penthouses.

Shielding interior mechanical ductwork from visitors’ views has required considerable coordination among members of the design team, Goetter says. Because there are few walls inside the museum, conduit has been concentrated within the concrete floor or amongst the overhead beams.

One of the museum’s major design elements is a 75-ft-tall, 40-ft-wide brick wall that caps the south end of the museum building. Of the 20,000 hand-cut bricks that make up the wall, 4,700 are matte grey units that spell out “Harley-Davidson” in a field of black glazed brick.

A smaller, rectangular “Harley-Davidson” brick wall is located at the west end of the archives building, and a similar treatment is given to the west edge of the restaurant/retail building, where the numbers “1903”—the year the company was founded—are inlaid.

The masonry work was performed by a bricklayer who has been a lifelong Harley-Davidson rider. His enthusiasm for the job was captured in a short video Harley-Davidson recently made to update its dealers on the museum’s construction.

“Being a rider for all these years, I’ve actually been able to take the experience of riding and put it into what I know best how to do—and that’s build masonry walls,” says Tom Wendt, a bricklayer with Fred Kinateder Masonry of Waukesha, Wis. “So between building walls and riding motorcycles, I think this is the best place I could imagine working.”

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