Harley-Davidson Museum Opens in Milwaukee

Rising from reclaimed industrial land in Milwaukee's Menomonee Valley, the new Harley-Davidson Museum is an imaginary factory clad in black brick and an exposed, galvanized-steel skeleton.

The industrial-chic museum and its displays, featuring a 450-motorcycle collection, including a bike once owned by Elvis Presley, were designed by New York-based Pentagram Architects and opened last week.

Rather than being a motorcycle theme park with rides, the museum highlights Harley's image as an iconic manufacturer, the museum's designer, James Biber of Pentagram, said.

The grassy, 20-acre campus, a former asphalt factory and Morton Salt storage shed, is bounded on three sides by an industrial canal, aging factories, and warehouses. The central structure is the 130,000-square-foot museum, with an archive and bike-restoration lab on one side and restaurants and a gift shop on the other, all linked by elevated walkways.

The buildings are bisected by two roads that create a central square holding 1,500 motorcycles parked rally-style, angled into the curb.