First at the finish: Walker architects lead the charge on major Minneapolis projects
Linda Mack, Star Tribune
April 10, 2005
Take the quiet brown Walker. Bring in edgy architects to double the space. And what do you have? An architectural talking piece that is the first salvo in a city's cultural rebirth.
Next Sunday's opening of the re-made Walker will set off a barrage of architectural fireworks that will change the Minneapolis landscape in the next two years.
For its entry, the Walker tapped Herzog & de Meuron, winners of the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 2001 and one of the world's top firms, with back-up from the Minneapolis firm of HGA.
It will be followed by French architect Jean Nouvel's monumental Guthrie Theater on the riverfront, Cesar Pelli's wing-topped downtown library, and Michael Graves' more traditional additions to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Children's Theater.
The Walker's design may be the most challenging. Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron love to experiment. In London, they turned a Thames River power plant into the massive Tate Modern. In Tokyo, they made a glassy Prada store into an urban mecca. At the Walker, they tweaked the usual museum box into something odd and eye-catching.
From the crinkled aluminum squares that make up the icy exterior to the angular windows, sloping floors and swooping ceilings, the design keeps you off-kilter.
As Herzog loves to say, "It's anything but Swiss and boring."
This experimental approach fits the Walker's identity as an arts institution that loves to push the edges, said Tom Fisher, dean of the University of Minnesota College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.
"Like the Walker, Herzog & de Meuron are about exploring unusual ideas," he said.
Eight years ago Frank Gehry's swirling silvery Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain created the "Bilbao" effect, remaking the flagging city's image into a cultural mecca. Will the Walker do the same for Minneapolis?
Not by itself, said Fisher. But together with all the other building going on now, "it's really an extraordinary group of projects."
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Linda Mack, Star Tribune
April 10, 2005
Take the quiet brown Walker. Bring in edgy architects to double the space. And what do you have? An architectural talking piece that is the first salvo in a city's cultural rebirth.
Next Sunday's opening of the re-made Walker will set off a barrage of architectural fireworks that will change the Minneapolis landscape in the next two years.
For its entry, the Walker tapped Herzog & de Meuron, winners of the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 2001 and one of the world's top firms, with back-up from the Minneapolis firm of HGA.
It will be followed by French architect Jean Nouvel's monumental Guthrie Theater on the riverfront, Cesar Pelli's wing-topped downtown library, and Michael Graves' more traditional additions to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Children's Theater.
The Walker's design may be the most challenging. Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron love to experiment. In London, they turned a Thames River power plant into the massive Tate Modern. In Tokyo, they made a glassy Prada store into an urban mecca. At the Walker, they tweaked the usual museum box into something odd and eye-catching.
From the crinkled aluminum squares that make up the icy exterior to the angular windows, sloping floors and swooping ceilings, the design keeps you off-kilter.
As Herzog loves to say, "It's anything but Swiss and boring."
This experimental approach fits the Walker's identity as an arts institution that loves to push the edges, said Tom Fisher, dean of the University of Minnesota College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.
"Like the Walker, Herzog & de Meuron are about exploring unusual ideas," he said.
Eight years ago Frank Gehry's swirling silvery Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain created the "Bilbao" effect, remaking the flagging city's image into a cultural mecca. Will the Walker do the same for Minneapolis?
Not by itself, said Fisher. But together with all the other building going on now, "it's really an extraordinary group of projects."
Here's a slide show from the StarTribune with some great photos: http://www.startribune.com/stories/319/5322668.html
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