Project Overview
Designed as a key thoroughfare connecting Lake Michigan with the cultural amenities of downtown Milwaukee, The Couture is Wisconsin’s largest residential building. Standing 44 stories tall, the 750,000-ft2 tower boasts spectacular views in all directions, along with 322 apartments, more than 900 parking spots, a public rooftop park, and prime restaurant and retail spaces. The Couture’s lower podium offers a multimodal transportation concourse that loops through the building site, with a second-floor pedestrian concourse providing access to the retail spaces. After more than a dozen years of planning, the transformational project was brought to life thanks to precast concrete and the efforts of International Concrete Products and architect RINKA.
Ahead of the Curve
The RINKA team devised the concept for The Couture from a pair of nested ellipses in plan, an approach that created the structure’s signature curved profile. Achieving the building’s elegant curves was accomplished through the production and installation of more than 700 oval-shaped pieces of architectural precast concrete cladding. International Concrete Products manufactured the pieces with a bright white acid-etched finish using mixture proportions that included 40% white sand, which helped achieve the level of brightness specified by RINKA. Precast concrete cladding was installed from the fourth level of The Couture all the way up to the 46th floor. The building’s large glass windows are also supported by precast concrete spandrels, bearing the load to ensure a uniform façade while providing construction efficiency.
Significant design and fabrication challenges were encountered by the project team as they worked to achieve the oval-shaped design, requiring a high degree of precision and customization. Each floor demanded 18 unique precast concrete forms, and an additional eight forms were needed for the penthouse level, resulting in 26 distinct form profiles. Most of the precast concrete panels incorporated at least two radii, with some featuring three, adding complexity to both the formwork and production processes. To counteract these challenges, efficiencies were achieved by reusing 18 standard floor forms across 50 casting cycles, optimizing production time and resources without compromising design integrity.
Using precast concrete delivered numerous advantages to the project. Working under an aggressive schedule, local general contractor Findorff benefited from the capability of performing overnight installations. Additionally, precast concrete afforded the design team the ability to use different methods that allowed continuous insulation with enhanced quality. Consistency in the fabrication of the panels was also critically important, with architects at RINKA desiring that the building “pop” in the sky—a vision that was achieved thanks to the white acid-etched finish manufactured into the architectural precast concrete cladding. From a construction-sequencing standpoint, precast concrete enabled off-site fabrication to take place while site work progressed, accelerating the schedule. Finally, the finished precast concrete panels also served as the final exterior façade, eliminating the need for additional cladding systems and shortening the envelope installation time.
Overall, precast concrete was fundamental in converting a complex architectural design into a buildable, efficient, and enduring structure, offering the Milwaukee skyline a striking, elegant high-rise that’s well situated for the long term.
Read more about this project in the Fall 2025 issue of Ascent.
Mason Nichols is a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based writer and editor who has covered the precast concrete industry since 2013. |