Located on Juneau Avenue in Milwaukee’s Near West Side Neighborhood, Davidson Community Park completed in 2024 creates a hub for the community within Harley’s headquarters. Upgrading their campus while making an impact, the park is built to serve for decades into the future.
Enhancing what was a parking lot, the circular park targeted a ‘civic and soulful green gathering space’ in partnership with HGA and Heatherwick Studio. Coined ‘The Hub’, the 272 ft wide central sunken multipurpose space hosts tiered seating, motorcycle driveways, parking bays, sidewalks, benches, and native plantings with layers undulating around the center. Ensuring the park was purposeful to community members and employees alike, the Harley Davidson Foundation hosted a summit to gather area partners, residents, business owners, and youth to research and understand what their hopes and dreams for the neighborhood look like. Taking that input from the constituents, design goals and decisions were made for data driven, maximized impact for all ages and demographics.
Driven by collaboration and celebrating heritage, Harley wants their impact to extend beyond their riders, “No matter how fast you move forward, you can never forget where you’ve come from – this project both celebrates our heritage and reinforces the power of the Harley-Davidson brand to be a force for good within our communities.” – Jochen Zeitz, President & CEO of Harley emulates. Throughout the park are elements of Harley from views of the iconic water tower to brick murals of riders and iconography, the park exudes the Harley brand while serving its community. Construction includes 10 local brick sources for a variety of clay colors, local timber, and weathered steel to invoke the industrial identity of Milwaukee with over 200,000 sq ft of public space including additional plans for a market, playground, and garden space in the near future.
Filled with native plantings advised by the Forest Country Potawatomi Tribe, the park is the first phase of development within the campus as The Harley Davidson Foundation continues to make lasting impact for the Milwaukee community in which it resides. As an extension and celebration of their history, a focus on multi-purpose development on campus has begun development of a STEAM Lab and Factory Racing Headquarters.
The impeccable metalwork was provided by the talented team at Badger Rail, a cherished local business with decades of experience building Milwaukee beautifully. We are ecstatic to be part of the home-grown celebration on Juneau Avenue and the impact for our Milwaukee community. Klik USA’s heritage lies in part in Harley Davidson and being a part of their continued legacy is a high honor.
