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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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Washington Avenue looking east. Medical school block in the center, Coffman Union (1939) at far right.
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Washington Avenue looking east. Medical school block in the center, Coffman Union (1939) at far right.

washington0036

  • Satellite photo of the Twin Cities Campus (East Bank) showing (in red) the route taken from Coffman Student Union (at bottom, south of Washington Avenue), northward up the Mall to Northrop Auditorium and to Folwell Hall (which fronts on University Avenue), then westward through the historic Knoll, where the U's oldest buildings are located. Washington Avenue bridge spans the Mississippi River at lower left.
  • 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.
  • Perhaps every place yearning to be famous needs a Frank Gehry building. We didn't go into the Weisman Museum and can't judge it. But sticking this metal-clad building on the edge of an overwhelmingly brick campus relieves the drabness of the buildings along the Mall. You can see the Washington Avenue Bridge to the West Bank campus, double-decked in the 70s to encourage students to walk or bike the distance.
  • Weisman Art Museum, 1993, Frank O. Gehry, Architect
  • Weisman Art Museum, 1993. Angular shapes clad in brushed stainless steel.
  • Looking west at the Washington Avenue Bridge (1962), which connects the East Bank and West Bank portions of the campus. The lower deck is for vehicles. The upper level was added in the 1970s for pedestrians and bicycles. Thousands of students, faculty, staff, and visitors walk across it every day. Downtown Minneapolis can be seen upper right.
  • Washington Avenue looking east. Medical school block in the center, Coffman Union (1939) at far right.
  • Washington Avenue looking east. Lollipop lights (popular in the 1960s and 70s) lead toward Ford Hall. The Mall is to the left.
  • The Mall. Ford hall on the right; Vincent Hall center.
  • Looking north on the Mall (designed by St. Paul architect Cass Gilbert, 1908) to Northrop Auditorium (designed by Clarence Johnston, 1928).
  • Northrop Auditorium (1928), north end of the Mall.
  • Lamp, Walter Library (Clarence Johnston, 1924), west side and north end of the Mall near Northrop.
  • Northrop Auditorium (1928), north end of the Mall.
  • Northrop interior. Only shot I could get as I walked across the stage where I received my B. Arch degree 44 years earlier.
  • A commencement at Northrop.
  • Northrop Auditorium is cavernous, with 4800 seats to house the entire university student body (1928) for convocation. It is to be remodeled to provide only 2800 more spacious seats, decent acoustics, and better sight lines.
  • Behind (north of) Northrop Auditorium is the Old Campus Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The U has retained and is adapting the use in a number of buildings from the oldest days of the university. Pillsbury Hall (Harvey Ellis, 1889) was built during the first big expansion of the University.
  • Pillsbury Hall, 1889
  • Nicholson Hall, 1890. Reopened January 2006.
  • Jones Hall, 1901. Reopened fall 2005.
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