Project 2 Proposal

For this project I plan to shoot the Milwaukee County School of Agriculture and Domestic Economy. Wisconsin has a huge history of agriculture, and now we see it predominately in rural areas. This was a high school in Milwaukee that began operating for the 1912-13 school year until 1928 when enrollment had continually decreased to the point where they could no longer afford to run the school. The buildings have since been used as a tuberculosis sanatorium. In 1978 the buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places. More recently the history and the buildings themselves have been severely neglected. Some people believe that the buildings have been purposely neglected in hopes to have them condemned and something more commercial built in their place. In 2007 Scott Walker authorized SWAT officers to host a training conference in these buildings which caused damage to the interiors. In 2010 UWM proposed a plan to develop the location as Innovation Park and engineering and research campus. There have also been proposals to renovate these buildings into apartments and building more apartments around them. Currently these buildings still sit in a state of neglect with nothing being done to renovate them.

For this project I want to show the neglect of these historical buildings. The buildings are so contrary how Milwaukee is now an industrial city. I want to show what remains of the counties agricultural past. There are very few people alive now that were alive when this school was running. No one thinks of Milwaukee as being an agricultural area or remember a time when it was. Its sad that these nationally recognized historic buildings are not being actively protected and are already being forgotten. I will show the little bit thats left of Milwaukee's agricultural past.

I'm not sure if I want to produce color or black and white images. The buildings are made of brick and I think some of the decay could get lost if I did black and white. At the same time the buildings are in an obvious state of decay and black and white could add more drama.