science

U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee)

U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee) is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee) rather than just read about it. In short: U.S. Bank Center is a skyscraper in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Key takeaways

U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee) belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

U.S. Bank Center is a skyscraper in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Standing 601 feet (183 m) and 42 stories tall, it is the tallest building in the state of Wisconsin and the tallest building between Chicago and Minneapolis. The building has a floor area of 1,236,203 ft2 (114,847.0 m2). As of 2026, major tenants included the main headquarters of Baird, Foley & Lardner, and Sensient Technologies, as well as regional offices for U.S. Bank and Deloitte. The building was designed by architects Bruce Graham and James DeStefano of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and engineered by Fazlur Rahman Khan. It was topped off on August 29, 1972, and completed in 1973. It was the headquarters for Firstar Corporation from 1973 to 2001.

History

Plans were initially announced by First Wisconsin National Bank to construct a new headquarters building on August 21, 1969. Although no architectural designs were complete at the time of its announcement, bank officials indicated it would rise at least 40 stories. On March 18, 1971, bank officials unveiled the final design as a 42-story, 601-foot (183 m) skyscraper, encompassing a full block fronting on East Wisconsin Avenue. Designed by James DeStefano of the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, with Fitzhugh Scott Architects of Milwaukee serving as an associate planner for the project, the name of the tower was announced as the First Wisconsin Center. The building was topped-out on August 29, 1972, with the installing of the final 20-foot (6.1 m) steel beam atop the tower. Along with bank officials, mayor Henry Maier, county executive John Doyne, and Wisconsin governor Patrick Lucey attended the ceremony. Near the end of construction in 1973, two fatalities occurred at the work site. In May, a foreman died after being struck by a dump truck. In July, one worker died and four others were injured when a derrick used in installing a 175-pound (79 kg) aluminum panel broke free and fell 41 floors to the ground. The building was initially occupied on September 4, 1973, and celebrated its official opening on October 6, 1973.

First Wisconsin Center While still under construction in September 1972, a group of local developers responsible for the neighboring Juneau Square development filed suit against First Wisconsin. The $138 million suit alleged the bank acted in a "monopolistic" manner to control office development, in an effort to derail the plaintiffs proposed 25-story office tower project on a property adjacent to the First Wisconsin Center. After several years of litigation, the suit finally went to trial in May 1976. The following October, the court found First Wisconsin guilty and awarded the plaintiffs $6 million in damages that was then tripled to $18 million due to federal laws on damages awarded to antitrust suits. First Wisconsin appealed the ruling, and in August 1977, a federal court ruled the case be retried due to the complexity of the original trial, along with the plaintiffs being allowed more time and the admission of hearsay testimony. Upon appeal, in June 1978 the court ruled in favor of First Wisconsin in clearing the company of all charges. After remaining under the ownership of First Wisconsin since its opening, in June 1987 it was announced the tower would be purchased for $195 million by the Dallas development company Trammell Crow. At the time of the announced sale, Trammell Crow unveiled plans to construct a 50-story tower southeast of the First Wisconsin Center in overtaking it as the state's tallest building. It has since remained unbuilt. The sale was completed in January 1988 with Trammell Crow paying $195 million for the complex, only to subsequently sell it to an investment partnership for $220.9 million.

Firstar Center In December 1988, First Wisconsin changed its name to Firstar Corporation as its operations expanded beyond the state of Wisconsin. In May 1992 the First Wisconsin brand was dropped and all retail banking operations were unified under the name Firstar Bank. As a result, on September 14, 1992, the building was renamed the Firstar Center. In 1996, a $1.2 million skywalk was constructed over Van Buren Street to connect the tower with the neighboring Lewis Center. The addition was funded in part by the city of Milwaukee as an economic development project as Firstar had significant operations in both the tower and neighboring Lewis Center. In 1998, the ownership partnership of The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, and the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) decided to place the center on the market. The following November Star Banc Corporation of Cincinnati announced the re-purchase of the tower into company hands for $200 million at the time of their purchase of Firstar.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee)

In research: U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee) appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1973 establishments in Wisconsin, Bangladeshi inventions, Colombian inventions, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee) in simple terms?

U.S. Bank Center is a skyscraper in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Why does U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee) matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee).