Washington Park

What’s Happening at Washington Park?

The rebuild of the Urban Ecology Center’s Washington Park location officially began in the fall of 2023.

Through this project, we will:

• Update and expand the previous building creating a new community gathering and environmental education center
• Double our capacity for K12 school partnerships
• Launch new early childhood education programming

During construction, we are temporarily located at the Washington Park Pool House (N. 40th St. and Galena St.) where we will continue to have a number of offerings for the neighborhood.

Stop by and say hi!

See progress photos and updates here! 

Building On A Strong Foundation

Our Washington Park location was opened in 2007 to serve more neighborhood schools with our acclaimed Neighborhood Environmental Education Project. Located at the former site of the Milwaukee Zoo, we opened a site here to help with neighborhood revitalization efforts.

And it worked! Here’s what happened just last year:

• 5,100+ student experience in partnership with neighboring schools
• 88,000+ visit to our building and green spaces
• 2,500+ hours of volunteer work

Unfortunately, the outdated and inefficient building is limiting our ability to increase our programming and does not provide the welcoming environment we wish to offer. Imagine if we could do more. Imagine what could happen if we doubled our programming, increased access to early childhood education programming, and reached more kids and adults from across the city. This historic Milwaukee County Park has so much to discover!

Bringing Our Dreams to Life

In 2021, we began raising funds to reimagine our Washington Park location - bringing the wonder of nature to the heart of this vibrant neighborhood.

Through intentional conversations, we listened to our neighbors, to students, to community leaders, to supporters, to the County and to the City.

To learn more about the project and our progress, visit our Imagine Campaign website