Riverside Plaza, the 1,300-unit modernist apartments that dominate the eastern Minneapolis skyline, quietly turned 50 years old last year. When it was originally built in 1972, the apartment complex, composed of six distinct buildings, a parking lot, and massive concrete plaza were intended to be just the first part of a much larger complex of urban mixed-use structures. With all the phases complete, the concrete communities would have basically replaced Minneapolis’ Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, which was seen then as a slum with no future.
But that’s not what happened. Neighborhood opposition and shifting politics halted expansion of the ambitious housing project. Over the years, the apartment complex evolved into an affordable community with historic designation.
One guy has been there almost the entire time, keeping the building from falling apart.
“When I first set foot on that property, there was a much larger college population there,” said Gordy Willey, the longtime chief engineer of the Riverside Plaza apartment complex, when I asked him what’s changed. “The University of Minnesota was there, and there were nearly 100 apartments in each building reserved for Control Data for their school.”
Minneapolis has changed since Control Data, a now-defunct tech firm, had a small West Bank training school. Riverside Plaza’s strange history reflects the changing mores of urban planning and Minneapolis society. Despite the economic and social tides, the thousands of apartments in Riverside Plaza still stand tall, providing homes for countless Minneapolitans close to downtown, jobs, the state’s largest university and the diverse attractions of the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood.
That’s not to say everything has always gone smoothly, at least not from an infrastructure point of view. With this many homes, windows, heaters, and sinks, something is always going wrong.
“It’s not the kind of job security most people want,” Chief Engineer Willey admitted. “When you’ve got 1,303 apartments, you know it’s probably going to happen. You hope you get to it before it cuts loose.”
Somehow, 66-year-old Willey has been working at the apartment complex through almost its entire lifespan, and it’s safe to say that nobody knows the ins and outs of the buildings better than he does. He began working in the buildings as a twenty-something mechanic back in 1982.
The way he tells it, Willey got the job almost accidentally. The engineers ahead of him in seniority quit, were fired, or couldn’t agree on a salary, leaving him the last man standing. He continued working for Sherman Associates when the developer bought the complex in the late 1980s, after a default by the previous owner, and he hasn’t stopped fixing things since.
There’s a long list of things that need to be kept in good shape in Riverside Plaza, everything from the heating oil tank to thousands of appliances to the sprinkler system to the emergency power supply.
Fun fact: emergency power was installed in the 1980s after Metrodome construction (!) knocked out power to the neighborhood, trapping people in the elevators. Willey had to go in and rescue people stuck in between floors.
As you might imagine, the elevators serving the buildings have always been a headache. Because the buildings were originally planned with studio and one-bedroom apartments and fewer families, the original designers didn’t foresee elevator demand being as high as they are today. As Willey puts it, “they get a workout.”
For decades, the biggest problem was the pipes. Until the $70-million-dollar 2010 remodel, Willey was constantly fixing the pipes for the buildings’ “dual-temperature” heating system, where hot and cold water flow all through the complex. When they were first constructed, the insulation contractor did a substandard job, leading to near-constant rust and rupture by the time Willey took over the maintenance.
Reinstalling all those pipes was job No. 1 during the extensive 2010 remodel.
“That problem is now behind us, and that has made my life much much better,” Willey said. “Those pipe failures happened 24/365, whether it was 20 below outside, or 95 degrees and 2 a.m..”
[image_credit]Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society[/image_credit][image_caption]An image of Riverside Plaza from 1975.[/image_caption]
All that while, tenants were moving into the brand-new apartments of the “New Town in Town”, as the short-lived Federal policy that helped fund construction was known. Back then, the apartments were intended for every kind of household, from furnished student housing to upscale apartments for singles (like fictional Minneapolis resident, Mary Tyler Moore) to affordable housing for families. It was supposed to be a diverse, futuristic community reflecting every facet of Minnesota society.
In that light, Riverside Plaza might be viewed as a failure, a place that, as groundbreaking DFL politician Allan Spear described in his memoir, “never fulfilled its expectations.”
It’s all perspective
It turns out that everything depends on perspective. One group that arrived to live at Riverside Plaza are the flocks of rock doves that continually pirouette over the skies of Cedar Avenue. With panoramic views of the city and the river valley, the buildings offer ideal nesting ground for urban pigeons, giving a mellow soundscape to the brutalist concrete spaces.
You might think they were always there, but you’d be wrong.
“Well into the 1970s, there were no pigeons,” Willey told me. “I can’t pin down the exact year when they showed up — it was sometime in the 90s — but they just grew exponentially.”
In a kind of arms race, Willey and his Riverside Plaza maintenance staff have worked for years with a university team to house falcons on the rooftops, in the hopes that raptors might keep the pigeons under control. It works, sort of, though there are always more pigeons to serve as falcon food.
Because of the falcons, whenever Willey’s crew have to go onto the roof to repair infrastructure, they bring with them a small children’s sled to use as a shield. One person keeps the falcons at bay, while the other makes the repair as quickly as possible, until they can retreat back to safety.
Still, it’s better than any of the alternatives.
“I don’t see how we’re ever gonna get rid of them,” Willey admitted. “We’ve paid different companies, tried different ways; it’s not that I’m anti-pigeon, but I’d like them to live someplace else.”
Still standing
It feels strange to walk through Riverside Plaza 50 years after the fraught opening. The wide open spaces are clean and well kept, but something seems missing. The charter school on the plaza has been closed since COVID, but the nearby corner store is open. The plaza’s art and architecture seems designed for an audience that’s no longer there, relics of a forgotten second-story city of the future.
Compared to much of America’s large-scale mid-century urban housing, Riverside Plaza has fared well. To this day, the buildings provide affordable homes for thousands of people – the vast majority are refugees from East Africa – and thanks to the extensive 2010 rehab, they’ll do so for decades to come. That stands in contrast to many other subsidized apartment complexes that have been torn down throughout the Midwest.
“You have to be there to know, and most of the things said about that place simply aren’t true,” Willey said, referring to stereotypes about inner-city apartments. “I’ve been there all that time and it’s not an unsafe place to be. Most of the tenants are not a problem. It’s like any group of thousands of people, there are always gonna be some troublemakers.”
Especially for a Modernist housing project, 50 years is a long time to survive and thrive. Given the city’s housing shortage, the 50-year-old buildings are one of the city’s chief assets.
And all the pipes are insulated now, though Willey admits the bathtubs are quickly reaching the end of their design life.
“I don’t think I’d do it again, if given the choice,” Willey admitted, referring to the moment when he took over as maintenance head. “Just like Riverside, I’m feeling my years, and a $70 million rehab of me won’t change anything.”
Another, very important factor in the halt to the demolition and redevelopment of the entire Cedar-Riverside neighborhood was the recession that took place at that time. And yes, the complex used to house a much greater diversity of population that included college students; the big change took place when the Keith Heller/Gloria Segal enterprise went bankrupt, leading to Sherman (then operating as Sherman Boosalis) and Brighton Development taking over the property in a scandalous and devious violation of HUD regulations and accountable practices that included the City of Minneapolis as a key player. The new owners mandated a dramatic increase in the percentage of units with federally subsidized rents. Thus, no more students, and soon, a population–now primarily immigrant–that made the complex into the highest concentration of race and poverty in the Upper Midwest.
I understand that a probable cause of serious plumbing pipe deterioration was electrolytic corrosion from connection of dissimilar metals and possibly currents induced by radio waves in what were in effect tall antennae. Considerable infrastructure repair was accomplished in the last of several so-called refinancings (actually property sales between tax shelter-financed entities), but Sherman failed to use the opportunity to merge units and make more multi-bedroom apartments suitable for the many large families who live there, in buildings never designed to house such a number of large families. Overcrowding continues; I leafleted the entire complex more than once, and tenants sometimes opened their doors to reveal rooms of wall to wall mattresses, in unsafe violation of federal and state housing codes. Records suggest that Sherman has mainly used income from the complex to finance other elements in a large real estate empire.
Those who wish to learn more about the highly questionable Sherman/Brighton transaction and early days of their ownership should seek an outstanding City Pages article of that time, “Faulty Towers,” by Jennifer Vogel.
Mr. Markle,
I do not know how you can move toward a nuance of condemning George Sherman for making his units available for refugess — many of whom have told me that they feared for their life when talking to management in their East African homes about problems in housing. Several men have told me that in Somalia, one might be evicted, assaulted and even killed for complaining about their rental housing and asking for repairs.
I’ll be the first one to tell you that since 2014, the way Management here has behaved toward several of the tenants who I’ve met is hardly ideal, but they are making repairs within the two week period permitted by state and federal law — except for the utility door outside my apartment unit which flies open during bitter cold days and nights and in high winds from the north and northwest over 10 mph.
As for your having leafleted the building, please tell us when that was. I’ve been invited into several of my neighbors’ apartments and ty[ically find either sparse apartments with few pieces of furniture, or homes where it is clear that my neighbors typically take care of their lodgings. Certainly, there are problems with people with poor hygiene and who trash their apartments. However, when complaints have been made about two of my neighbors by me (on humanitarian grounds for their health and safety), the problem ends with the parties being moved to assisted living or eviction for other reasons.
Your statements were from a position of “leafleting” the complex. What you were doing here, other than making a political campaign literature drop (and if so, were you accompanied by the candidate, as is required), and do you know the full reasons for the ” wall to wall mattresses, in unsafe violation of federal and state housing codes,” and do you know that Management, upon learning of apartments housing more than the leawfully permitted number of residents get notices to vacate, as is required by law?
It seems to me that you have intense and radical hang-ups about this property and about big business. Have you studied Sherman-Associates diverse holding of properties as far west as Colorado, and as far east as Milwaukee? You appear to be a very opinionated and presumptuous individual with these comments. Are you aware of lawsuits which Sherman-Associates have lost that are pertinent to your allegations? If not, you may be guilty of unethically defaming a provider of clean homes in generally good repair. Elevators notwithstanding, the physical plant at this property is pretty good. Two criticisms I would make of former managerial employees who have moved into high ranks at Sherman-Associates is that a bridge between my building and another building has an uneven and potted deck which allows water and ice to settle. I’ve been after Management for six years to fix this, as it ruins our clothing and is a slip and fall hazard. The other complaint regards a bush that was damaged by a 4×4 tractor which is dead and unsightly near B-Building and on the Plaza Level outdoors on the way to the Resident Services Office. The few other comments which I have to criticize the Property involved the former executive manager whose manner was toxic and the stuff of many complaints and actual protests of hundred of tenants which WCCO, KSTP, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Saint Paul Pioneer Press and the Minnesota Reformer broadcasted and published several years ago, and actions which led to a civil rights abuse claim by several of my neighbors. That manager has been elevated to the position of regional vice president of residential properties and does not have direct involvement with tenants. She is in an operational position and does an outstanding job at that, and is out of the loop in customer service relations issues.
I suggest you reassess your manner of judging others. You come from a position as a visitor with not much insight into what is going on here at Riverside Plaza. The staff makes decisions about hygiene and livability in an ethical manner, and Weli Hassan, the director of the tenants’ association, assists tenants when conflict with management occurs. Hassan is a polyglot with fluency in seven languages and worked with a multinational organization in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the U.S. for many years and has supervised over 5,000 people serving the needs of his former organization. He is soft-spoken, thoughtful, has a good sense of humor, and is an effective communicator. Your aggressive and anti-immigrant comments about the reason for George Sherman’s decision to ask for government subsidies to allow refugees to live here and settle in a manner where they would not be lost in the crowd of people whose culture they did not understand as often illiterate but loving and intelligent members of the commnuity is something which I feel is not fitting in a civilized and multicultural community.
Re-read what I wrote, Barry. What Brighton, Sherman and the City did to acquire the property is indefensible. The head of HUD admitted that it was improper. It seems very clear that Brighton and Sherman simply wanted most of the rents federally subsidized in order to guarantee the income, it had nothing to do with immigrants, and in fact the conversion took place before any of the large waves of immigrant occupancy. As to your insinuations that I’m a radical and anti-immigrant, I’ll charitably ascribe them to your ignorance rather than categorize them as deliberate insults.
I’ve lived in Riverside Plaza since June 3, 1993. I’m a transplant from Lowry Hill, the upscale neighborhood in south Minneapolis near Lake of the Isles. My family home is now valued at over $1 million. I moved around during my early childhood and hate moving, so I’ve stayed here through the transition from student’s making up the core of the population when Whites, Asians and Latinos were here, to now the mostly East African Muslim population. The Africans are a joy to live among, and as a result of my desire to be a good neighbor, I’ve studied the Noble Qu’ran and guided neighborhood children with Muslim, instead of Christian, teaching.
Management of the physical plant is generally very good. Gordy is a great guy and when we talked about the property more frequently, his comments to me were every bit as illustrative and interesting as any of my college professors at Macalester College and University of Minnesota.
However, we have had problems with management and security at times. Early management leaders when I was here in the beginning were outgoing and intending to make the apartment complex a desireable place for people to live. This has changed in some ways over the years. Some of the staff are really excellent, but since a former executive director came in with a militant management style, the staff in many ways has become less friendly and outgoing. There were accusations of security personnel roughing up youth, and one man I knew told me that someone on the staff attacked his wife, though I don’t know if the civil rights lawsuit against the property led to a conviction.
The elevators in some of the taller buildings have issues at times, but the staff works on them; and within a week they are up and running again. There are sets of two elevators in most buildings except for the McKnight Building, which is 40-stories. During the renovation in 2010, I lived in McKnight. I’ve lived in the B-Annex since 2005. This building is only 4-stories and the elevators generally work quite well. Others are 10-, 20- and 40-stories talk.
The pigeons are a problem, and made worse by residents feeding them. I’ve been pooed on three tims over the years and wish they would go away. The balconies are black with pigeon droppings.
I have considered moving from Riverside Plaza after having twice being attacked by youth on drugs, though even some of the kids who take drugs consider me to be a father-figure. When I see them in the stairwells (which is infrequent) smoking a brown line of drugs on aluminum foil, I simply tell them the risks they are taking with their actions, and ask them to look out for their health. Becoming angry or dramatic is not the answer, nor is putting them in jail or evicting them from the apartment when they are being peaceful but making poor decisions for their health. This is a very small minority of the kids. I worked at a University of Minnesota Mental Health Chemical Dependency Clniic when I was in college in 1987. I take a caring, instead of militant, approach to talking to people about drugs. The tenants’ association offered a group to help peolpe get off of drugs.
What I have greatly enjoyed over the years is talking to children and teens about their studies. Most of these kids are extremely bright and well-behaved. One of my language students in China asked me about the African kids and adults, thinking that because they are from Africa, they are not scholarly. However, these kids are very much into their studies with pride. They are also very frequently bilingual. Some of the older students have attended law school, business school and medical school.
This said, I am considering remaining at Riverside Plaza, despite having been attacked and sent to the hospital with blood loss and ruined clothes from excessive blood after one of three men knocked me out for a moment after I asked him to not be so loud at 10:30 p.m. He and his companions were high on a drug called khat. They were very loud and aggressive, and I have learned to stay in my apartment and call security when things get out of hand.
Several months ago, someone shot two bullets into my building which went through the walls and damaged a picture window with a four-inch diamter hole. However, this is not a frequent problem, and the Management now has hired armed guards in addition to their patrols who walk around the complex.
The landscaping here is typically very attractive, and the grounds are well manicured. The snow is removed in record time by intent caretakers who go out in all kinds of weather to enhance the living-quality of the property.
It took a while for me to become accustomed to men in their hamis clothing (long coats which go down to their ankles) and the women in their hajibs, but I am now comfortable with this clothing and the women do not typically have feminist hang-ups about their attire, as many people believe. Each culture has their own belief systems, and the humility which the women hope to preserve is refreshing to me when many Western women bare all in public leaving little to one’s imagination. Modesty, apart from extremes, is my preferred style of attire.
I believe I will adapt to my concerns for violence in the neighborhood, though I recognize that it is not so common. It is uncommon compared to having lived in Lowry Hill, but I will get a mat and workout in my apartment and the inner grounds of the apartment building on the Plaza Level outside.
Overall, I have greatly enjoyed living at Riverside Plaza, and the owner, George Sherman, has been approachable and fun to talk to in the past. His story has been told in MinnPost, and his success is well-earned.
What a fascinating tale, Barry. Thanks for sharing, and I hope to see you around Cedar Avenue someday.
Thanks, Bill. I’m one of the few White guys around here. I wear glasses, and a little overweight (into the mildly obese category), and look like a subdued “dress casual” professional. I have brown hair. Don’t forget to eat at The Wiendery, and say I sent you when talking to the owner, Pat Starr, a real estate entrepreneur with a love og his greasy sppon eatery!
“… the flocks of rock doves that continually pirouette over the skies of Cedar Avenue.”
Used to be a convenience store right in the complex, is that still there?
Paul, the convenience store is still here. The first owner sold it when the Muslim population began to live here. He was a racist and called my neighbors and friends a disparaging racial epithet. I worked at the store while I was in college. It is now owned by a man named Hassan, who owns a few stores. The food products which they sell are largely items which are traditional Somali/East African foods. Additionally, they sell a large variety of products which are high in sugar and other carbohydrates.
Hassan is an approachable and friendly man. I am hoping that he will attend to my request that he provide more products which are high in protein and low in sugar and vegetable oil. This, for snacks which quench hunger.
I convinced him to work with another of my friends, Wais Azizi, who owns Football Pizza(.com) in northeast Minneapolis at 23rd and Central Avenue NE, and his pizza factory to sell Wais’ delicious halal pizzas. Halal products from beef, lamb, goat and poultry are killed in a humane manner by hand and blessed by imams. Otherwise, there is no difference to the taste of these meats. Kosher products and halal products can be used interchangeably by those who are observant of those religious customs.
One of the realities of the Muslim management of this store, now called Super Plaza Halal Foods (it was formerly PDQ Foods), is that the employees will lock the doors and pray during the Muslim prayer periods, which changes every day a little based on the position of the sun (and the moon during Ramadan fasting periods, which changes dates every year based on the lunar New Year, so if we don’t keep track of the prayer periods, we may be out in the cold or heat of the day ( and rain and blizzards waiting while prayer takes place.
All of this has left me with an impression of very peaceful and honorable people who attend to formal elements of their culture in a manner which tends to create order and reliability.
On a side note, about “Islamic terrorists,” I have had conversations with my Muslim neighbors about those organizations and the people who take up guns, swords and bombs to enforce their will: My neighbors resolutely condemn that violence and refer to those people as being “lost” and as not in keeping with the message of the Noble Qu’ran as practiced by most of the roughly 1.8 billion Muslims in the world (2017, Pew Research). What has been happening with women in Afghanistan not being able to go out or attend college is not written as a part of the Islamic culture in the Noble Qu’ran. I also have friends from Afghanistan whose grandfather was the treaurer of the last King of Afghanistan in the 1960s.
Moreover, many feminists take up an angry and hostile position regarding Muslim women wearing hijabs. While some Muslim women do not like to wear the veil or the hijab, I have spoken to several Muslim women in various places around the world who have said that they feel naked without them, and that they wear the hijab to preserve their modesty and sense of appropriacy. This, I believe, cuts down on sexual harassment and also does a lot to remind one another to respect others. In the deserts, it also does a lot to keep the sand out of one’s face and hair. Not all women wear the veil, but many do wear their veils around Riverside Plaza. When I meet women (and men), I routinely greet them with the traditional “Assaalamu Aliaykum,” which means “May peace be upon you.”
So, the store is still here and well managed, though the products are mostly tailored for both the East African community diet and to people who want to get high and stay awake with all of the sugar sold in the store. The bread loaves mad at a local bakery are also quite tastey and fun to eat. The employees are very considerate and friendly, and they even have a credit system worked out where they keep a book of debts to the store which are honorably paid when people’s paychecks and/or EBT/SNAP allowances become available.
Thank’s Barry. I’m pretty sure it was a PDQ back in the 80’s when I know someone who lived there, it was a nice amenity. Good to hear that it’s been updated to fit the current community.
Yes, Paul, it was PDQ back then. I moved in on June 3, 1993 when it was PDQ. I worked as a cashier and did a little sweeping and mopping to help earn money to pay for college.
This has been a great experience for me, as I was able to see the reality of Muslim culture. Quite a contrast from the media in and around 2010 casting Muslims as terrorists. My neighbors were upset that those terrorist organizations misused and abused the name of Islam for their wars and commercial initiatives in oil fields. I grew so tired of the slanderous manner in which major media cast the Muslim commnuity that when my old television broke down, I didn’t purchase a new one. My great uncle was a CBS News vice president, and a friend of mine was a Capitol Hill reporter during the Reagan administration; but I nonetheless excommnuicated broadcast news and their infamatory and biased, and their ignorant, view of Islam. During a walk down Cedar Avenue, an al-Shebab terrorist recruiter was heard trying to recruit one of my neighbors. My neighbor was shocked and exclaimed, “This is immoral! Leave me alone!” He walked away.
Getting back to the store, if a customer enjoys goat and lamb, and basmati rice (I like basmati rice), the store can keep a family fed. It has many really appealing spices, injera bread (flat spongey bread which is used to pick up cooked meat and salad instead of using a fork and knife — which I also love), so the store is right for them. However, I don’t like doing too much cooking and only use my microwave for most meals, so I’m out of luck with their assortment of food.
I will note that Somali spiced and baked chicken is the best I have ever eaten, and I am glad that my neighbors have taken a liking to me, because during Ramadan when it is common to share food with others, I am sure to get at least one of those meals. And I am telling you: There is nothing like Somali spiced and baked chicken! Super Plaza Halal Food also sells chicken legs in plastic bags.
The uncle of one of my friends was prime minister of Somalia before it devolved into a state of civil unrest and when Europeans did a lot of business and tourism there. My friend works as the tenants’ association director. Prior to settling at Riverside Plaza, Wli Hassan worked as an executive manager in oil fields and offices in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and California. He was responsible for managing over 5,000 people. He runs the tenants’ association like a pro; and he speaks seven languages. My French is a little off, but he has had conversation with other Somalis in French and Italian, as well as Somali and English, while I’ve visited him for lunch and meetings to discuss a business in which he has invited me to assist as a writer and editor.
The tenants’ association, of which I was a member of the board of directors and judicial officer in the 1990s, has employment programs to get tenants including teens and young adults, whorking in the commnuity; as well as educational programs for the tenants. The last I heard of the number of tenants is that the complex has between 4,000 and 5,000 people living here. Some come from what would be affluent and powerful families in Somalia, as well as poor families without much education. This place became an institution for me to learn that while people may not have much education or speak English in the most proficient manner, they are otherwise loving and intelligent — though one man who I met on an elevator spoke of the United States in the most deragatory manner and said he hates living here.
One of my younger friends, who goes by “MJ” and now lives in Colorado, founded the Cedat Riverside Youth Council when he was 14-years old. He wanted to put together an organization that helps develop leadership and athletic prowess. He worked with CRYC until he got to college. He later went to law school, took time away from law school to travel and work on the West Coast, and then returned to Somalia for a while to assist his dad who was experiencing medical problems. His mom’s name is Simpson, and I enjoy chatting with her when we run into one another in the buildings.
One of the signs that showed me that I was making good decisions about how I interacted with families was when I was invited to take part in a child’s birthday party in their home. The party was fun, but the kids were eating the cake with their hands, taking cake from the original source. This was a little comical, and seeing the frosting all over their faces was endearing.
My attitude about commnuication with my neighbors, who strongly hold to their East African culture, was founded on a saying I heard when I was a kid: “When in Rome, do as the Romans.” Here, I am in”Little Mogadishu,” as it is known internationally (though it once housed thousands of students). So, I greet people in Arabic, as is their custom, and I help elderly members of the commnuity with heavy boxes — even though I have severe back issues. When Management was friendly to me, I assisted tenants with their concerns for their apartments because, as I earlier said in another statement above, many tenants feared that rocking the boat would amount to getting them evicted, assaulted or killed as sometimes happened in Somalia when renters had issues with the properties in which they lived. I don’t know how widespread that was, but a couple of men commented on that to me when I asked them why they felt uncomfortable talking to what was then an amiable staff. Now, Weli Hassan, the tenants’ association director, works as a mediator on behalf of tenants.
Soon, Football Pizza, located at 23rd and Central Avenue NE in Minneapolis, will be distributing their trademarked halal football designed pizzas to Super Plaza Halal Food, and I will have more of an option for snacks and dinners. Halal food doesn’t taste any different from non-Halal food. So I welcome people trying East African and Middle Eastern foods!
More power to you Barry. Great Story.
The Cedar-Riverside project was designed by local well-known architect Ralph Rapson (who also designed the original Guthrie Theater, Pillsbury House and many other projects).
The NORTHERN LIGHTS Minnesota Author Interview TV Series recorded a two-part program about the book that chronicled Ralph’s design career (“Sixty Years of Modern Design”) which featured a short section with Ralph describing the C-R model re-creation at a Weisman Art Gallery exhibit in 1999:
NORTHERN LIGHTS Episode #430 (go to 22:47-23:42 of the program):
https://collection.mndigital.org/catalog/p16022coll38:111#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&rid=https%3A%2F%2Fcollection.mndigital.org%2Fiiif%2Finfo%2Fp16022coll38%2F111%2Frange%2F0.0
All the same, it shouldn’t have been put on the National Register; the original Guthrie Theater was a much worthier example of Rapson’s work. Designation for Riverside Plaza merely added $$ to Sherman through issuance of inappropriate historic preservation bonds.
David, I don’t disagree. I think Ralph Rapson’s original vision was a worthwhile attempt to create a new vibrant urban village, but it is arguable that what was built is/was worthy of historic designation. I do bemoan the loss of the Pillsbury House and the original Guthrie Theater — the video also has Ralph’s very interesting insights into the Guthrie project, and how Tyronne Guthrie imposed cost-cutting measures that hurt the building’s viability and longevity… and how Ralph decided on his own to install the “confetti” seating colors which Tyronne absolutely hated!
To Dave Carlson and Dave Markle regarding Riverside Plaza being put on the National Historical Register.
I believe there were several reason for this. The first was the design of the property. The second may have been that the Mary Tyler Moore Show of the 1970s/early 1980s was situated here after Mary moved from West Lake of the Isles Blvd, in a house owned by friends of my parents. to Riverside Plaza. The third possible reason that both The Artist Formerly Known of as Prince (and I, of course) have lived here.
There is a lot of history here; and before a former executive manager moved in in 2014, and began to run the property like a military compound, it was run very well as a village with previous managers working as considerate diplomats to the student and immigrant commnuities.
As an aside, there has been more gun crime in the area, and several months ago two shots came through the walls and windows of my apartment building, the B-Annex. Armed patrols have been employed to ward off gun criminals. Some of them have decent personalities, but some can be very heavy handed to people parking and waiting for their family or friends in front of the buildings.
Again, I’ve lived here since early-mid 1993 when I moved in to live near University of Minnesota as I completed college and before fulltime students weren’t permitted to live here (I believe this is so if they are on financial aid, but it may be a blanket rule that fulltime students can’t live here. I’m uncertain). I formerly lived in the Lowry Hill Neighborhood not far from Lake of the Isles with my parents who were legal and medical professionals and real estate entrepreneurs/business executives.