PlanetReuse: Reclaiming "MECCA: The Floor That Made Milwaukee Famous" on ESPN's "30 for 30"

Over the past 6 years, it has been fun working with designers, contractors and owners at PlanetReuse. Making connections that would otherwise not occur by providing tools and technologies through our network to keep materials out of the landfill is what we do. We work with reclaimed gym flooring, bleachers, lockers, seating, etc. from sports facilities throughout North America. We also work with less glamorous materials like reclaimed turkey barns, warehouses, carpet tile, dated office space materials, cubicles, old brick, and many more ordinary materials.

Learning the story behind the materials is part of the fun, like hearing what happened in structures coming down — what was originally manufactured in old structures, who ate at the restaurant, and in this case, what famous, world-renowned artist painted amazing work on it. So when we had the opportunity to connect a buyer and a seller on a significant project like the Milwaukee Buck’s MECCA floor, we get pretty excited. We worked with Andrew Gorzalski, the eventual buyer of the floor, to confirm through many panel shots and requests that this was the actual floor that was for sale. We worked to draw boxes on a floor image to go along with the actual panel paint colors (see the attached photos). It was a perfect match.

Robert Indiana is an amazing artist and he created a beautiful floor for Milwaukee back in the 50’s. It mesmerized all players and coaches that played in MECCA. Many projects and materials can be parted out to various buyers who all “want a piece” of a certain material, but this was ideal to keep as one masterpiece.

We’d love to see shows on all of the building material reuse projects we work on, to help spread awareness to the 80% of people that don’t even know the reuse industry exists. When director Chris James Thompson, who was working on a piece for ESPN’s "30 for 30” series, approached us, we jumped at the opportunity to tell the story.

On June 11th, look for PlanetReuse on ESPN’s award-winning “30 for 30” documentary series that will tell the story of the MECCA Floor. Our marketplace and social media connections helped connect the buyer and seller.

Here’s a great article about the MECCA floor and film by Doug Russell with 620WTMJ NewsRadio.

Enjoy MECCA!