PRESERVATION CORNER
Endangered Public Art and Landscapes
Swan Song for Minnesota
Orchestra’s Front Yard?
As part of its urban renewal projects of the 1960s, the
city of Minneapolis hired landscape architect M. Paul
Photo by Keri Pickett.
Friedberg to design a plaza to connect the new down-
delineated by groves of honey locusts,
town Nicollet Mall to the city’s first park, Loring Park.
create a sense of intimacy. Due to the
The new plaza was intended to serve as a “front yard”
challenges of maintaining the public
for the Minnesota Orchestra’s new concert hall, but for
plaza, ownership might be transferred to
the many people who work in downtown Minneapolis,
a private entity, threatening it’s modern-
Peavey Plaza is also an urban oasis where water-
ist design as well as public access. For
falls block out city noise and small “rooms” of space,
more information, visit www.tclf.org.
innen.
.
tesy of TCLF
Cour Photo by Lupita Murillo T
Water and Public Access Cut off to Heritage Plaza in Ft. Worth, Texas
Texas is endowed with many celebrated downtown to the Trinity River; it also serves
modern era public landscapes, including as a symbolic link to the city’s heritage. The
Philip Johnson’s Fort Worth Water Gardens plaza overlooks the river from steep bluffs
(1974) and Thanks-Giving Square (1974) in that Halprin considered among “Fort Worth’s
Dallas, but Heritage Plaza is the state’s only greatest natural assets,” second only to the
significant design by Presidential Medal of Arts river itself. Recently, however, the City of Fort
recipient Lawrence Halprin. Located at the site Worth shut off the water flowing through the
of Fort Worth’s original settlement and part of park’s features and, in September 2007, cut
a larger Heritage Park design, Heritage off public access. For more information, visit
Plaza provides a physical link from the city’s www.tclf.org.
112 www.modernismmagazine.com