The Artist Bringing Fresh Design To Milwaukee, Rustic Roads With The Best Fall Views For This Weekend

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1SarahSmith (CC BY-ND 2.0)

Many of Milwaukee’s iconic buildings and spaces in neighborhoods like the Historic Third Ward in recent times can be traced to Milwaukee-based design firm Flux. We talk to a designer with the company about their role in restoring some of the historic areas of the city. We also talk about the best places to check out autumn views this weekend, whether you’re on foot or wheels.

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  • Rustic Roads Showcase Wisconsin's Fall Colors

    By design, the speed limit on Wisconsin’s 120 Rustic Roads is 45 mph or less.

    “You really have to intentionally slow down from the fast pace of freeways,” said Gary Knowles, president of the Midwest Travel Writers Association.

    Offering a sublime view of the state’s transition into fall, the Rustic Roads were intentionally created by the state Legislature in 1973 to protect wildlife and natural areas from some of the states suburban and commercial growth.


    Rustic Road sign. 1SarahSmith (CC BY-ND 2.0).

    “They’re meant to preserve Wisconsin as people knew it back in the days before it was really developed,” he said.

    Varying in length from about two miles to 37 miles, Wisconsin’s Rustic Roads are the prime place to view the state’s changing colors, and Knowles listed a few of his favorites:

    No. 100

    A route that follows part of the Flambeau Trail, Rustic Road 100 has a lot of the natural vegetation and wildlife common to that part of the state.

    Beginning near Mercer, the route heads north to the Wisconsin-Michigan border and follows highways H and G, passing bodies of water including Clear Lake and Owl Lake along the way.

    “It really has that flavor of the north woods that you want to have when you get up there,” Knowles said.

    No. 119

    In Door County, this is one of the longest rustic roads in the state at 27 miles long. This one in particular is on Washington Island and requires a ferry to get there.

    “It kind of encircles the whole island and really gives you a great flavor of what it’s like to be out on an island out in the Great Lakes,” he said.

    No. 103

    For those in western Wisconsin, Knowles recommends heading to the route in Polk County, which runs along the St. Croix River.

    Starting at Somerset Landing in the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, the 2.8-mile route features views of bluffs as well as prairies and farms.

    Knowles said snowmobile and bike trails also follow the route.

    No. 50

    In Adams County in southeast Wisconsin, Rustic Road No. 50 is 4.6 miles of unpaved road that’s flatter than what’s seen elsewhere in the state.

    Knowles said the road, which locals call Cottonville Avenue, was probably laid out in the 1800s.

    “The views along the road are neat, there’s native lowland and upland trees, a lot of shrubbery and marshes,” he said, noting that it’s a favorite site to spot wild birds and deer.

    No. 29

    Snake Road in the Lake Geneva area is a loop that runs off of Highway 59 and is 2.7 miles long.

    “My suggestion is first drive it in one direction and then turn around and drive it back the other way,” he said.

    Non-Rustic Road Options

    In the west, Knowles also recommended the Great River Road, which follows the Mississippi River.

    Starting from south of Prairie du Chien and traveling through La Crosse and up to St. Paul, Minn., Knowles said it’s an especially picturesque drive now because some trees along the route seem to turn colors later than is typical.

    “It’s kind of the way the leaves have been turning for years is that that area tends to be a little bit late,” he said.

    In central Wisconsin, Knowles recommended taking drives through Iola, east of Stevens Point.

    “You can take the roads that go through the hill country over there,” he said. “You get these big vistas of agricultural views and then occasionally it’ll duck through a wood lot.”

    Visiting The Roads

    The roads are all listed on the state Department of Transportation’s website by county and by region, as well as in a recently-published 98-page book that’s available for free by calling the DOT at 1-800-432-8747.

    Knowles said the photos featured in the book are the result of a photo contest held by the department in the past year or two.

    “Almost all of the photos in the book were taken by people who’ve been out there enjoying the rustic roads, and there are some beautiful stuff — everything from butterflies to ponds to lighthouses.”

    Rustic Road designations are determined by a Rustic Road board and through the local transportation authorities in the municipality where the road is located, Knowles said. Generally, people who live along the road will sign a petition to start the process.

  • 'In With The Old': Milwaukee Artists Repurpose Used Materials Into New Creations

    Jeremy Shamrowicz is the type to pull a cast iron radiator from a dumpster, hitch it to a skateboard and roll it home.

    A resourceful art student in the 1990s, Shamrowicz didn’t have the money to refurbish the worn-out building that he had just leased that had no heat on the third floor.

    The two-by-fours, windows, doors, radiator and sinks that were junked by contractors and retrieved by Shamrowicz turned the Historic Third Ward building into a functional space. That eventually became the design studio of Flux Design, a one-stop shop that has had a hand in restoring, renovating, designing or decorating more than 500 spaces in Milwaukee and beyond.

    That once-abandoned space also served as a shared home between Shamrowicz and a few classmates from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, from which Shamrowicz graduated.

    “It was all from somebody else’s rubbish. That’s how we built our space,” said Shamrowicz, who is educated in sculpting and industrial product design.

    Although the headquarters of Flux Design has since moved, the company has grown to employ a full-time staff of 16 that includes designers, artists, contractors and others who contribute to building and designing everything from bedroom sets and tables to entire rooms.

    In business since 2000, Shamrowicz and his team are currently working on designs for an optometry store, hair salon, candy store and brewery, among other projects.


    AJ Bombers, designed by Flux Designs. Photo courtesy of Flux Designs

    Shamrowicz isn’t dumpster-diving anymore, but the 45-year-old artist is still using the practice of reinventing old materials into something new and innovative by looking for materials from all different sources.

    Case in point: The Smoke Shack.

    A one-story barbecue joint flanked by six-story buildings, this Third Ward creation was built with material from a barn belonging to one of Shamrowicz’s friends, he said.

    “(We reassembled) the barn into the Smoke Shack itself and repurposed as many materials as possible,” he said. “We do this on a ton of projects all over the city.”

    In another example, materials from a disassembled Quonset hut helped in the designs of a handful of projects throughout the city.

    “I’m constantly collecting, refurbishing and reusing things and placing them back into great opportunities, whether it’s commercial or residential,” he said.

    Shamrowicz and his team meet with clients and photo document and measure the space they’re hired to recreate. From there, those measurements are applied to a computer program which the designers use to produce a conceptual layout before suggesting ideas for furniture, surfaces, lights, textures and other components.

    Evidenced by Flux Design’s work, Shamrowicz’s design philosophy involves the study of materials and the different ways those materials can be used. There are many ways to redevelop spaces depending on what clients want and what trends are popular or changing, he said.

    “It opens the doors for tons of different things to do,” he said.

    With a majority of his own work affecting downtown Milwaukee, Shamrowicz said he wants to see the city continue its progress in reinvigorating old, worn-out spaces that once had people questioning what there was to do downtown.

    “Now, it’s ‘Where do you want to go tonight?’ because there’s so many options,” he said.

    For his own creations, Shamrowicz aims to develop spaces that are memorable to visitors and provide them with a sense of nostalgia, he said.

    “I love how art interacts with people,” he said. “I love building experiences.”

  • The Artist That Is Helping Redesign Milwaukee

    Downtown Milwaukee looks a lot different today than it did twenty years ago. While new buildings like Fiserv Forum and the Northwestern Mutual tower have added to the landscape, the restoration of neighborhoods like the Historic Third Ward have also played a large part in the change. We talk with designer Jeremy Shamrowicz of Flux Designs, a full service design company that has fingerprints on some of Milwaukee’s most iconic destinations.

  • Wisconsin Weekend: Pumpkin Edition

    Fall means a lot of things in Wisconsin, and one of them is that it’s time for pumpkins! In this edition of Wisconsin Weekend, we check in with two Wisconsin growers about how the pumpkin crop fared, how to grow giant pumpkins, and learn about interactive activities involving this fruit in the state.

Episode Credits

  • John Munson Host
  • Breann Schossow Producer
  • Jana Rose Schleis Producer
  • Michele Gerard Good Technical Director
  • Sarah Hopefl Technical Director
  • Gary Knowles Guest
  • Jeremy Shamrowicz Guest
  • Glen Martin Guest
  • Andrew Mommsen Guest