Shannon Wunderlich: Doors Open Milwaukee

For the Doors Open Milwaukee experience, Sam, Christian, Jessi and I decided that we needed to get to the top of the U.S. Bank building. Though Milwaukee is technically a "major" U.S. city, there's not a lot of opportunity for your average Joe to spend time on a double-digit floor of a skyscraper and we wanted to capitalize on the chance to view our city from its peak atop the tallest building around.

First and foremost, I was surprised at the amount of people in attendance. Sometimes I think I'm a little naive when it comes to wrapping my brain around just how many people can inhabit a certain square mileage - I guess I just didn't think there would be much of a turnout. But, I thought wrong.

Even before we reached the building, I'd heard that there was some sort of wait, which I found hard to believe. Upon our arrival, we were met with a steady flow of humans entering and exiting the building, which I still didn't quite buy. Only when we found ourselves at a standstill at the very back of a long line to the elevators was I able to understand just how many of my fellow citizens were in attendance.

After a 30ish minute wait, we finally reached the elevator that would bring us up to the observation deck.

Once the elevator doors opened, we were met by this room full of pipes, which I thought was really cool. It was sort of like being in the underbelly of the U.S. Bank building - you know, if underbellies were suspended hundreds of feet in the air and on top of everything else. It was especially interesting when compared with the clean cut marble and glass surroundings of the floor we'd just left.

The deck was packed with still more people, everyone clambering over one another to get a good look. I think the main thing I walked away with from this experience was a sort of reverence for the scale of human presence in this city. The bird's eye perspective of the city that allowed for such an expansive view sort of drove home the idea of the space that I and so many other people move through on a daily basis, that we claim as our own when addressing postcards. I think it's easy to get lost in the cityscape, to lose focus on just how much space is used on so many different planes. It was especially funny to see MIAD from way up there - this building that encompasses such a large part of my life getting lost in the labyrinth of surrounding structures.