The Quadracci Pavilion

Com­pleted in 2001, the Quadracci Pavil­ion, named after phil­an­thropists Betty and Harry Quadracci, was designed by famed Span­ish archi­tect San­ti­ago Cala­trava as a spec­tu­lar lake­side addi­tion to the Mil­wau­kee Art Museum.

Most peo­ple think of a shore bird when they see the unusual struc­ture, now a Mil­wau­kee land­mark, and that appears to have been the architect’s inspi­ra­tion. James Ire­ton, how­ever, the pro­tag­o­nist of The Mys­tery of Things, thinks of some­thing else when he sees it.

Here’s a brief excerpt from chap­ter one, as James awakes from a night­mare while nap­ping on Brad­ford Beach, on the shores of Lake Michigan:

Rak­ing sand from his blonde hair, James scoured his perimeter…nothing. Only the expanse of lethar­gic water, nib­bling at the shore, and the occa­sional seag­ull wing­ing on the scant breeze above here-and-there group­ings of sun­bathers, not yet ready to return to school or work after the long Labor Day week­end. To the south looped the curve of Milwaukee’s mod­est sky­line, where the dis­tant sails of the Quadracci Pavil­ion shone white in the sun­light like a spec­tral Viking ship come ashore, and the Hoan Bridge beyond it reflected silver.

Here’s an excel­lent recent Smith­son­ian mag­a­zine arti­cle on the Quadracci Pavilion.