Has there been any decent architecture in St. Paul in the last 30 years?
The Schubert Club Heilmaier Memorial Bandstand; photo courtesy Schubert Club. Below: Minnesota History Center; photo by Sharyn Morrow, Creative Commons.
I was having coffee with friends last weekend, and the conversation turned to which city was more livable: Minneapolis or St. Paul. One guy argued that St. Paul is a more pleasant city to walk around in because the architecture is more cohesive. “Sure,” replied another, “but name one building that’s gone up in St. Paul in the last 20 years that you’d look at and say, ‘Now that’s great architecture.’ Or 30 years—I’ll even give you 30 years!”
The topic changed before anyone could rise to the challenge, but my interest was piqued. It’s true that Minneapolis gets a lot of showy new buildings—some obviously bad (Calhoun Square, the construction of which inspired a “Dump Updale” campaign), some obviously good (the Weisman), and some with strong partisans on either side (the new Guthrie, the Walker addition)—but it’s not easy to rattle off a list of superb, or even arguably superb, new buildings in St. Paul. So I decided to pose my friend’s challenge to some local architecture experts; here’s what they had to say.
Geoffrey Warner
Principal, Alchemy Architects
The Schubert Club Heilmaier Memorial Bandstand on St. Paul’s riverfront was done by James Carpenter (a New Yorker!) in 2002. Simple, elegant, it is not quite a building, but a great structure reinterpreted from saddle arches made popular in the 1950s.
Paul Clifford Larson
Co-author, St. Paul’s Architecture
I share your friend’s pain. Great architecture has been a rarity here, not just in the past 30 years but since the late 1930s, with the exception of a brief burst in the 1950s that created two phenomenal residential neighborhoods (Stonebridge and east University Grove).
But there are some outstanding exceptions of recent vintage. I don’t like beauty contests at any level so I refuse to name just one. But here is my list of buildings of great merit put up within the last 30 years, in chronological order:
• Ordway Center (Ben Thompson, 1984)
• Minnesota Judicial Center Addition (Leonard Parker Associates, 1989)
• Minnesota Children’s Museum (James/Snow Architects and Architectural Alliance, 1995)
• 401 Building (Architectural Alliance, 2000)
• Schubert Club Heilmaier Memorial Bandstand (perhaps a structure rather than a building, James Carpenter, 2002)
But for their thoughtful responsiveness to their sites—one of their chief strengths—I think any of these could stand proudly in any city.
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Blogger, Building Minnesota
Minnesota History Center. It’s substantial, elegant in an I-am-an-important-building sort of way, and offers a great view of the Capitol.
Philip Koski
Design columnist, METRO magazine
Como Park Conservatory addition by architect Kara Hill at HGA. Finished a few years ago, the fern room is especially awesome for both its tropical humidity levels and the glassy enclosure patterned with a random pattern of solar cells that both provide on-site energy and create the dappled shade ferns thrive in.
Minnesota Children’s Museum. It was very cool and different when it was designed in the early 1990s. Won some awards.
Minnesota History Center. Yes, it’s postmodern and tries hard to fit in, but the public halls and spaces are heroic and precisely crafted with top-shelf materials. Another HGA building.
Orville L. Freeman Building, by Pickard Chilton and HGA. Clean and modern, though a little staid.
Finally, the Schubert Club Heilmaier Memorial Bandstand.
All in all, I regard my friend’s challenge to have been more than satisfactorily met: St. Paul has seen some great architecture in the last 30 years. Further, the consensus seems to be that if the City of St. Paul is looking to see even more great architecture, giving money to the Schubert Club and the Ordway isn’t a bad idea.
Jay Gabler (jay@tcdailyplanet.net) is the Daily Planet’s arts editor.
workaround
Comments
No votes for MPR?
Interesting that no one mentioned Minnesota Public Radio’s newish building. I worked for them for a decade before being laid off, so I’m not a huge fan of the organization but the building is GREAT.
Flannery Construction bldg at St Anthony just west of Hamline
Is a fun and functional building with green credentials. I am told that they loan meeting space there to community organizations.
Disclosure – Peter Kramer, architect, is a friend.
St. Paul architecture
I don’t mind that St. Paul isn’t a showplace of architecture from the past 30 years. I greatly appreciate that the city has preserved so much from its past 150 years — more so, I’d say with out any expertise, than Minneapolis has.
Some others
Galtier Plaza is alright.
The Science Museum is kind of cool-looking, the way it goes all the way down the bluffs.
And the Xcel’s worth a gander every now and then.
Plus the Cathedral’s roof is pretty new, and not half-bad.
There are all those new government buildings on the capitol grounds, which aren’t beautiful, but they work out alright.
And that addition to St. Joe’s on the other side of 94/35e commons is pretty nice.
University Grove and Stonebridge neighborhoods?
Paul Clifford Larson wrote “with the exception of a brief burst in the 1950s that created two phenomenal residential neighborhoods (Stonebridge and east University Grove).”
University Grove is located in Falcon Heights, not St. Paul (as is the “St. Paul” campus of the U of M).
MPR's building
MPR’s building is really cool on the inside, but completely unremarkable from the outside.
But yeah, I guess I don’t associate St Paul with anything new looking. So if they do build something new and it looks… old, that would be cool.
others
There are all those new government buildings on the capitol grounds, which aren’t beautiful, but they work out alright.
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