What to know about Milwaukee convention center, Baird Center, one of the 2024 RNC host sites

Fresh off a $456 million expansion, Baird Center will play a critical role in the Republican National Convention later this month.

The center is one of three main venues for the four-day event, alongside Fiserv Forum and the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. All three are part of convention security’s “hard zone,” meaning the area will be controlled by the Secret Service and require credentials to enter.

Baird Center, in particular, will be a home base for national and international news outlets throughout the week. It will also host Convention Fest each afternoon of the RNC, which will bring 100 local vendors together to showcase their products to the national convention audience. And the building is right near one of two designated demonstration areas for the convention.

Ahead of the RNC, here’s four things to know about Baird Center:

Where is Baird Center?

Baird Center is in downtown Milwaukee, at 400 W. Wisconsin Ave. It is part of a complex of buildings that also includes the Panther Arena and Miller High Life Theatre.

The convention center is more than two decades old — and has been renamed six times.

Though its renovation only ended months ago, the Baird Center has a 26-year history in Milwaukee.

The building first opened as the Midwest Express Center, when the city’s chamber of commerce set out in the early 1990s to replace an outdated convention hall in the spot with a larger meeting space, according to the center’s website. The 633,000 square-foot building debuted in 1998.

Throughout the 2000s, various airlines became naming sponsors for the building. In 2002, it was deemed the Midwest Airlines Center; in 2010, the Frontier Airlines Center; in 2012, the Delter Center; and in 2013, the Wisconsin Center.

The center got its current name in 2023, when the Milwaukee-based financial services company Robert W. Baird & Co became its newest naming sponsor.

The convention center’s multi-year renovation doubled its size to 1.3 million square feet.

The Baird Center expansion project kicked off in 2019, after the Wisconsin Legislature voted that they had a “moral obligation” to back up project bonds. In October 2021, construction formally began, and the center debuted the expansion this May.

The renovation added a 30,000-foot ballroom with its own kitchen and rooftop terrace, a 112,00-square-feet exhibition space, additional meeting rooms and increased parking, among other amenities.

In total, the project demanded 1.4 million hours of work and 2,359 workers on-site.

The convention center surpassed its diversity, equity and inclusion goals for the expansion.

As part of its expansion project, the Baird Center set goals to have at least 25% minority-owned business, 5% women-owned businesses and 1% disabled veteran-owned businesses contribute to the construction. It exceeded all these goals, according to the center’s website.

Creating more inclusive spaces was also a goal of the renovation, with the addition of all-gender restrooms, sensory rooms and nursing rooms.

Wisconsin and Milwaukee artists feature around the convention center

Artwork across Baird Center has been curated to highlight the history, people, cultures and landscapes of Milwaukee and Wisconsin, according to the center’s website.

The pieces on display range from large-scale portraits of Milwaukee students to aerial sculptures inspired by the Great Lakes. Twenty-one of the 33 artists featured in the center are current or former residents of Wisconsin.

Check out profiles of all the artists and artwork currently on display here.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What to know about Milwaukee convention center, hosting RNC 2024