Reigning Cats and Dogs:  Animals Get Royal Treatment at Humane Society

With addresses like the Royal Cat Hotel, the Kitty Corner, Lassie Lane and Benji Boulevard, you know right away that this neighborhood is special. It's the new $5.5 million Wisconsin Humane Society, and it's drawing nationwide acclaim. 

Designed by Eppstein Uhen Architects, the facility at 4500 W. Wisconsin Ave. represents new hope for unwanted animals. Its mission is to provide animal adoption, veterinary, education and outreach services, and wildlife rehabilitation, not to euthanize stray or abandoned pets.

The shelter's Executive Director, Victoria Wellens, enthusiastically applauded the help Beyer Construction provided, from the preconstruction phase to the project's completion. "Beyer's people were partners from the very beginning," she said.  

"That was terribly helpful to us in planning for our fundraising, in finding the right site, in helping us to develop costs, in value engineering, and in making sure the building would be exactly what we envisioned," Wellens said.

Festooned with works by local artisans, designers and school children, the building stands in sharp contrast to the stark atmosphere of many animal shelters. The floors even sport inlaid stylized dog bones. The wildlife rehabilitation center is one of the largest of any humane organization in the world, and the clinic is one of only three accredited animal shelter clinics 
in the nation.

"That's one of the significant differences in this building," Wellens explained. "We'll be able to help people who can't afford to take their animals to the veterinarian." With all the new building offers, adoption rates are up dramatically, as are the numbers of visitors and volunteers.

"[Beyer Construction is] still here with us," Wellens said. "They're still watching and still advocating for us, and that's a very important and rewarding part of this process." 

Watch for a grand outdoor opening celebration in April or May.

...Preconstruction analysis showed that the cost of renovating the existing building on the chosen site would be about the same as demolishing the structure and building this new state-of-the-art facility. Beyer conducted similar analyses of several sites.

...This statue of Henry Bergh, founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, will be a focal point for the Humane Society's Grand Opening celebration. Erected in Milwaukee in the 1890s, it's the nation's only statue of Bergh.

...With a focus on education and adoption, the Society's new facilities include several types of information exhibits.

"Beyer's people were partners from the very beginning. That was terribly helpful to us in planning for our fundraising, in finding the right site, in helping us to develop costs, in value engineering, and in making sure the building would be exactly what we envisioned."