In our never-ending pursuit to show that every building tells a story, we head to a trendy new co-working space on the East Side.
Underneath those new floors and fresh paint lies decades of Milwaukee's history.
Get to know the Work Lofts on this episode of Urban Spelunking below.
You might remember this beautiful Art Deco building as Izumi's, the long-running Japanese restaurant on Prospect Ave. Now, it has been completely reconfigured as the Work Lofts. It's a co-working space, basically a membership-based group office, offering an alternative to the coffee shop or home office.
Inside you'll find new conference rooms, social spaces, a kitchen offering both coffee and beer, plus long communal work tables.
But before coworking was even a thing, the space was built as the headquarters for the Western Fuel Company.
Picture this -- you walk in and are greeted by a row of teller windows. You'd hand them the cash to pay your heating fuel bill, then a clerk would lower your payment into the downstairs vault using a dumb waiter.
So 1930s!
Get to know the building even better by heading to OnMilwaukee.com. Read Bobby's story, and be sure to listen to the extended conversation above.
