Located in downtown Milwaukee, BMO Tower stands 328 feet tall, and features floor-to-ceiling glass that offers panoramic views of the heart of the city. The 25-story tower has 400,000 square feet of rentable space, 15 floors of offices and first-floor retail. The nearly all-glass tower is anchored by BMO Harris Bank and Michael Best & Friedrich, a full-service law firm.
Versatility and durability key to new tower in downtown Milwaukee
Architects at Kahler Slater, Milwaukee, selected insulated metal panels from Lewisville,Texas-based Metl-Span to enclose the parking on the tower’s bottom eight levels. The IMPs were selected for both design and sustainability, providing a barrier and protection from the cold, wind and snow common in Milwaukee.
To create a high-profile, monolithic appearance for the tower, architects used specific colored panels with trimless ends and pre-formed corners, which eliminated the need for metal flashings. For the project, Metl-Span supplied 20,000 square feet of its CF Architectural IMPs in Charcoal; 5,000 square feet of its CF Architectural IMPs in Satin Nickel; and 5,000 square feet of its CF Light Mesa IMPs in Tundra.
Mike DeBruin, senior project manager for the installer, Oshkosh, Wis.-based Muza Sheet Metal Co. LLC, says, “It’s a sleek building with clean lines, and the design with custom color panels that match the louvers creates a cohesive look.”
The concealed fastener architectural panels allowed the architects to create a clean sight line and seamless look due to the interlocking installation. To prevent water infiltration, a composite band was added to transition from the glass curtainwall to the metal panels on the 12th floor.
DeBruin adds, “We needed to keep water out of the panels below the composite and keep water that shears off the large glass curtain wall from getting into the building. The panels we installed were a second, insulated barrier that did that without requiring additional insulation to be brought in.”
The Metl-Span panels have a high R-value that helps maintain insulating values for the life of the building, significantly lowering heating and cooling costs. This was key to the project achieving Green Building Initiative’s Green Globes certification for sustainable design, construction and operations.
The project groundbreaking was held in November 2017 and opened to a limited number of employees in April 2020. The official building opening was September 8, 2020. In addition to being selected as Metl-Span 2021 Building of the Year, the BMO Tower received a 2021 Mayor’s Design Award and was selected as the Milwaukee Business Journal’s 2021 Project of the Year.