UPDATE from Docomomo US/MN on the public meeting for Peavey Plaza:
The new design calls for the complete removal of Peavey Plaza—the signature fountains and grade levels, the hardscape, the plantings, everything. These are the features that make the such a singular, iconic, and vibrant public space. A new park that has some recessed levels and water features will be built. It has a lot of technology as well—a “sound garden” and a “performance wall.” The design looks like it smashes together the New York Highline and Chicago’s Millennium Park. While these are both interesting designs and successful projects, we believe that the proposed designs for Peavey effectively transform a landmark into a lookalike.
What you can do: The city has set up a webpage with images of the “recommended design.” There is a link to submit comments via email by midnight (CST) October 24, 2011. Two city council committees are meeting on Tuesday to vote on the design to move the project forward. They will supposedly take the comments into consideration. The city council is supposed to vote on the design on November 4 and they hope to start construction in spring 2012. Here is the link to the webpage: www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cped/peavey_plaza.asp. Please go to this site and submit a comment to the city – let them know if you feel the new design really “sympathetically reinterprets” the current design. The link on the webpage for comments goes to Beth Grosen at the city: Beth.Grosen@minneapolismn.gov.
PREVIOUS: Join Docomomo US/ Minnesota and the Friends of Peavey Plaza on Wednesday, October 19th for a public meeting to review new designs for Peavey Plaza. As reported last year in the Docomomo US E-news, the preservation of Peavey Plaza has been threatened with redesign of the plaza and remodeling of the adjacent building.
The plaza has been determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places but is not officially designated either nationally or locally. Local preservationists, including the board of Docomomo US/Minnesota, are concerned that the design process has not been transparent and that public feedback up to this point in time has been limited.
The public meeting will take place from 4:30-6:30 PM in Orchestra Hall at 1111 Nicollet Mall.
For more on the meeting and efforts to preserve Peavey Plaza visit the Docomomo US/Minnesota Facebook page or the Friends of Peavey Plaza page.