The Friends of Blue Dress Park welcome you to Blue Dress Park.

Location: Southwest corner of Reservoir and Holton in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Anti-places can be social.

Blue Dress Park is a triangular concrete slab located at the boundaries of Brewers Hill, Riverwest, and the northern end of downtown. The space is notable and impressive for its disuse and emptiness, which has also been referred to as potential. The park was christened in 2000, its unique shape is defined by a waist-high Arts & Crafts-styled iron fence. There is no gate, it is essentially always open, physically accessible, centrally located, but psychologically off limits—or at least off the radar. The person who christened the park referred to it as “extra space fenced off from the world in the shape of half a tear drop.”

The Friends of Blue Dress Park produce tours, events, a mapping application and other initiatives to share history and collect visitors’ responses to this space and others like it in the city.

We want to hear your interpretation of what has and continues to influence marginalized urban spaces like Blue Dress Park!

What social activities can you imagine here?

© Courtesy of Friends of Blue Dress Park, 2011. Image credit: Paul Druecke