LETTER: Bird kill at Vikings stadium is a lesson for Newport building

To Ozaukee Press:

 I have been watching with great interest the development of the new proposal for Newport Shores condo, retail and commercial building on the Port Washington lakefront. Hopefully, the developer will follow the example of Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum, which has been heralded for its design using bird-friendly glass. 

The spring issue of Living Bird, a magazine published by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, has an article praising the new Milwaukee Bucks arena and contrasting it to the Minnesota Vikings’ new 30-stories-tall home. The article states that the Vikings’ stadium represents a lost opportunity to build a bird-friendly structure, with the result that there are now reports of numerous bird deaths. The stadium sits squarely in the Mississippi River flyway. The possibility of retrofitting the building  with bird-friendly glass (at over 10 times the cost of incorporating it during initial construction) is being studied.

Port Washington is designated as a bird friendly community. Being on the migratory shoreline of Lake Michigan, we have a responsibility to ensure that any new structure will follow the requirement to install bird-friendly glass on all levels.

I have shared these concerns with various members of the city government, including the mayor and members of the Design Review Board.          

Hopefully, Ansay Development will understand its responsibility to the city—and, more importantly, to nature—and the need to protect the many species of birds that fly our shoreline. Using the glass that protects birds would also bring positive publicity to this prominent development.

Geri Zehren
Port Washington