Univ of Minnesota, 4-27-2009
In April 2009, I traveled to Minneapolis for the national conference of the American Planning Association. I participated in three mobile workshops — getting away from the sessions held at the convention center to see real world examples of city planning in Minnesota. The best of these workshops took us to the "U" to see "adaptive reuse." The University is aggressively saving many of its older buildings, preserving the exteriors, and reusing the interiors for 21st Century college education. This is a campus I can still recognize; and while the enrollment of 51,000 students is double what it was when I attended (1950-55), I felt comfortable and quite at home. On a satellite photo of the campus (courtesy Google), I overlaid a red line to show the path of our walking tour. The slides follow that path through the campus.
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Coffman Memorial Union ("Steamship Modern" by MN State Architect Clarence Johnston, 1939) marks the south end of the Mall. Closed in 1999 for renovations; reopened in 2003. Through at least the 1950s, the portico entries opened onto a two-story interior space paneled in warm, dark wood, with a view to the river and with huge fireplaces on each side.That space is now gone, sliced horizontally to provide more floor area. Gone too is the grand ballroom, scene of many dances. But overall, it's a sensitive and well-thought-through reuse of the building.
