|
Newspaper Articles 
Arts group hires architect Michael Graves 
Star Tribune
Published: September 27, 2001
By Linda Mack; Staff Writer
RSEC: The Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Children's Theatre Company announced Wednesday that they have hired American architect Michael Graves, designer of everything from corporate headquarters to tea kettles and toilet brushes, to work on major expansions of both institutions.
The two organizations share a campus just south of downtown Minneapolis.
The Institute of Arts is planning a three-story addition on the west side of its campus to add space for new galleries and an education center. The museum also has asked Graves to design a piece for Washburn Fair Oaks Park, across from the museum's historic front doors, and to evaluate parking.
The Children's Theatre's plans focus on filling in the space between the existing theater and the art institute parking ramp, artistic director Peter Brosius said. The approximately 40,000-square-foot addition would include classrooms, rehearsal space and a 300-seat flexible stage for teenagers. The theater and the institute also have asked Graves to look at the 3rd Avenue entrance to give more of an identity and sense of welcome, Brosius said.
The Children's Theatre expansion plans have been announced previously, but the art institute's expansion plans had not previously been made public.
Graves, who recently was in the Twin Cities area for the dedication of the Target Stage on St. Paul's Harriet Island, is known for his design of the Denver Public Library and of the scaffolding used during renovation of the Washington Monument, a project funded in part by Minneapolis-based Target Corp. After the scaffolding was taken down, Target proposed rebuilding part of it in Washburn Fair Oaks Park. The controversial project proved unfeasible. Graves also has designed a line of housewares carried nationwide by Target stores.
The Children's Theatre is in the "quiet" phase of a $25 million to $30 million fund-raising campaign and hopes to open its new facility by spring 2005. Earlier this year it hired the San Francisco firm of Holt Hinshaw Architects to analyze the program, site and concept.
The art institute expects to develop alternative schematic designs and cost estimates by January, institute director Evan Maurer said.
He said he expects the approximately 100,000-square-foot addition to include three stories above ground and one below ground on the site of a parking lot on the west side of the campus. He said the museum needs more classrooms, a computer lab, a 100- to 150-seat auditorium, and office and storage space. The new space would allow existing space to be reconfigured and more of existing collections - such as the Wells Fargo collection of modern decorative arts - to be displayed, he said.
He said Graves, who's known for his postmodern architecture, is a perfect choice to design a structure that can meld with the institute's 1915 classical building, its modernist white 1974 addition and the Queen Anne houses across Stevens Avenue. "He's proven that he can do that," he said, citing as an example Graves' design of the Newark Museum in Newark, N.J. - Maurer's hometown.
Maurer said that the architect's international reputation would help build excitement for the project, which will require a major fund-raising campaign and that Graves' relationship with Target, a major donor to the museum, would give the institute "a bit of an insider relationship." RSP Architects of Minneapolis, which has designed the museum's most recent expansions, will be the associate architect.
Bruce Rasmussen, chairman of the Whittier Business Alliance and an attorney whose office is near the institute, said he was pleased that the museum and theater are working together.
"When they did the big remodeling of the institute [in 1974, when the Children's Theatre was built], they had one architect. They're following in that tradition."
Copyright 2001 Star Tribune. Republished here with the permission of the Star Tribune. No further republication or redistribution is permitted without the express approval of the Star Tribune.
Back to News & Reviews
| 
