Depending on which news sources you follow, Milwaukee is going through either a “renaissance” or a “reinvention.” Or maybe it’s a “reboot” or a “reimagining,” like that crappy Tim Burton version of Planet Of The Apes. However you want to define it, it’s safe to say that Milwaukee is currently building a lot of (hold on to your monocles, everyone who complains about this column every other week) new shit

• The Milwaukee Bucks’ season is over—just another blow in the flailing shit show that is 2020. But, um, at least they’re building a new hotel next to Fiserv Forum?

So yeah, a high-end, nine-to-10-story, 200-to-250-room Marriott Autograph hotel is coming to the vacant lot across the street from the Fiserv, “just north of Juneau Avenue, between North Phillips Avenue and North 5th Street.” The hotel—described as “one of the premier hotels in Milwaukee” by Bucks and Fiserv Forum President Peter Feigin—will feature a rooftop restaurant, a street-level restaurant, and a rentable second-floor balcony. Construction is set to begin in fall 2021, with completion set for “late 2022 or early 2023.” [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

• Also coming to the area immediately surrounding Fiserv Forum (a.k.a. the “Deer District”): the new shared home for the Milwaukee Public Museum and the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum! The 2.4-acre site is “east of North Sixth Street, between West McKinley Avenue and West Vliet Street.” MPM and Betty Brinn are expected to make the big move in 2026. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

• ThriveOn Collaboration. That’s the name of the future shared home of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation and the Medical College of Wisconsin, coming to the former Schuster’s department store at 2153 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. Oh, and the development will feature 77 apartments and a “community space,” too. Look for it to open in early 2022. [Urban Milwaukee]

• In one of those “let’s have folks imagine some neat stuff for a Milwaukee neighborhood” things, five design firms (via the UW-Milwaukee Community Design Solutions program) came up with some neat ideas for Villard Avenue. Theaters! Parks! Food halls! Stuff for pets! Apartments! More! [Urban Milwaukee]

• Construction has begun on an “unusual $80 million, 25-story mass timber apartment tower in downtown Milwaukee.” The 259-unit tower (dubbed “Ascent”) is located at 700 E. Kilbourn Ave. It will be the tallest mass timber structure…IN THE WORLD. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

• And don’t forget about the 11-story, 133-unit, high-end apartment development coming to 234 S. Water St. in the city’s Harbor District! [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

• The on-street connections to the Kinnickinnic River Trail are gonna get upgraded. [Urban Milwaukee]

• Alverno College is building a greenhouse! [BizTimes]

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Matt Wild weighs between 140 and 145 pounds. He lives on Milwaukee's east side.