Minneapolis riverfront's star to debut
New Guthrie Theater completes transformation of downtown
BY ARON KAHN
Pioneer Press
It's big and blue and has more curves than Dolly Levi — and when the new Guthrie Theater opens next Sunday in Minneapolis, it will stamp an exclamation point on the city's shift to the riverfront.
Like the lead character in Thornton Wilder's "The Matchmaker,'' staged by the Guthrie 30 years ago, the theater's new home brings various characters together. It unites the Mill City Museum, thousands of condos and other waterfront elements into a powerful draw on the Twin Cities landscape.
The Guthrie and other recent developments are tipping the city back to its origins, where flour milling pioneers of the 19th century launched corporate empires with names like Pillsbury and General Mills. Businesses and homes advanced to the south, creating the Loring Park neighborhood and the lake district, but the Mississippi once again is making a splash.
Spurred by a huge influx of public and private money — estimates approach $2 billion — the city has returned to its roots, escorted, perhaps appropriately, by a pioneer of Twin Cities theater, the Guthrie.
Its $125 million theatrical palace will change the face of an area that 30 years ago was marked by deserted rail yards, litter and broken bottles, the unhappy wake of the city's move away from home.
"It will be the iconic piece of architecture on the downtown riverfront,'' said Lee Sheehy, the city planning and economic development director.
It also will be a common thread that sews together a mixed bag of elements, such as the Mill City Museum, the MacPhail Center for the Arts, the Stone Arch Bridge, the riverfront park system and condominium homes on both sides of the river.
But there will be little doubt about the Guthrie's prominence among the others. At 285,000 square feet, the new building is more than three times larger than the old Guthrie. Its bends, bows and cantilevered, 12-story-high "Endless Bridge" render the architecture of Frenchman Jean Nouvel unmistakable along the riverfront.
Three theaters within will draw thousands of people to the area, but the Guthrie also will be open day and night, whether or not "The Great Gatsby,'' "The Glass Menagerie'' or "The Merchant of Venice'' is onstage. Two restaurants and two bars will be available for those who prefer lingering over a beer to sitting through "Hamlet." On performance days, up to nine other locations will serve drinks.
David Nasby, retired vice president of the General Mills Foundation, sat in his riverfront condo and gazed through a 12-foot window at the Guthrie's "twilight-blue'' metal façade and large, subtle images of past productions. With wife, Karen, he moved from the Nicollet Mall because, as he said, they sought the artistic glow of "the greatest performing space in the United States.''
Their linkage to the Guthrie is complete. Their broad kitchen countertops, backsplashes and seat covers intentionally match the Guthrie-blue of their eastern vista. Down on the street, they walk amid outdoor concerts that spring up here and there, and investigate emerging restaurants tucked into small spaces within the multiplying condo buildings, whose top-end units go for $3 million.
Karen Nasby had a salad with goat cheese-stuffed apricots at the recent opening of Spoonriver, a bistro swaddled into the first floor of the Humboldt Lofts, built from the ruins of the old Humboldt Mill, a 30-second walk from the Guthrie. The restaurant was started by the owner of Minneapolis' well-known Café Brenda, and it likely will overflow on theater nights.
Not everyone will cheer the Guthrie's opening, mainly because the swing to the riverfront could siphon home buyers and entertainment businesses from other parts of the city. The magnetism of the riverfront "will draw some development potential from somewhere else,'' said David Lanegran, an urban geographer at Macalester College in St. Paul.
For example, the new Minnesota Twins ballpark will be built in the Warehouse District, an area foreseeing sizable residential and commercial growth around the stadium.
Peggy Lucas, an executive of Brighton Development, a firm building many of the condos along the river, said the drain could flow the other way, hurting housing activity in her area somewhat.
"The market is softening, but I think people will still come to the river,'' she said.
Lanegran, co-author of "Where We Live," a book about St. Paul and Minneapolis neighborhoods, thinks that neither the riverfront, on downtown's northeast edge, nor the Warehouse District, on downtown's northwest perimeter, will suffer much.
"I think downtown can accommodate both,'' he said, adding that the city's overall downtown strategy is "one of the best plans made in the country."
It was a long time in coming. The general plan, laid out in the 1970s, advanced sporadically as the economy ebbed and flowed and as large Minnesota employers changed ownership. Downtown's development also varied as developers wagered money on when and where baby boomers would move, and as the boomers' children decided where to live.
Although condos along the riverfront generally cost between $300,000 and $3 million, some small one-bedroom condos start in the $200,000 range and some rental units are subsidized under affordable-housing guidelines.
In all, more than 4,000 apartment homes, most of them owned, liberally sprinkle the riverfront district on both sides of the Mississippi, as part of the estimated $2 billion of investment in the area. The ratio of private to public spending is about 5 to 1, said Ann Calvert, the city's head of riverfront development.
As for that big, blue phenomenon facing St. Anthony Falls, the $125 million Guthrie is financed through $85 million in private donations, $15 million through loans and $25 million from state bonds.
It's a world of money. But as Shakespeare wrote, "All the world's a stage."
Aron Kahn can be reached at akahn@pioneerpress.com
BY ARON KAHN
Pioneer Press
It's big and blue and has more curves than Dolly Levi — and when the new Guthrie Theater opens next Sunday in Minneapolis, it will stamp an exclamation point on the city's shift to the riverfront.
Like the lead character in Thornton Wilder's "The Matchmaker,'' staged by the Guthrie 30 years ago, the theater's new home brings various characters together. It unites the Mill City Museum, thousands of condos and other waterfront elements into a powerful draw on the Twin Cities landscape.
The Guthrie and other recent developments are tipping the city back to its origins, where flour milling pioneers of the 19th century launched corporate empires with names like Pillsbury and General Mills. Businesses and homes advanced to the south, creating the Loring Park neighborhood and the lake district, but the Mississippi once again is making a splash.
Spurred by a huge influx of public and private money — estimates approach $2 billion — the city has returned to its roots, escorted, perhaps appropriately, by a pioneer of Twin Cities theater, the Guthrie.
Its $125 million theatrical palace will change the face of an area that 30 years ago was marked by deserted rail yards, litter and broken bottles, the unhappy wake of the city's move away from home.
"It will be the iconic piece of architecture on the downtown riverfront,'' said Lee Sheehy, the city planning and economic development director.
It also will be a common thread that sews together a mixed bag of elements, such as the Mill City Museum, the MacPhail Center for the Arts, the Stone Arch Bridge, the riverfront park system and condominium homes on both sides of the river.
But there will be little doubt about the Guthrie's prominence among the others. At 285,000 square feet, the new building is more than three times larger than the old Guthrie. Its bends, bows and cantilevered, 12-story-high "Endless Bridge" render the architecture of Frenchman Jean Nouvel unmistakable along the riverfront.
Three theaters within will draw thousands of people to the area, but the Guthrie also will be open day and night, whether or not "The Great Gatsby,'' "The Glass Menagerie'' or "The Merchant of Venice'' is onstage. Two restaurants and two bars will be available for those who prefer lingering over a beer to sitting through "Hamlet." On performance days, up to nine other locations will serve drinks.
David Nasby, retired vice president of the General Mills Foundation, sat in his riverfront condo and gazed through a 12-foot window at the Guthrie's "twilight-blue'' metal façade and large, subtle images of past productions. With wife, Karen, he moved from the Nicollet Mall because, as he said, they sought the artistic glow of "the greatest performing space in the United States.''
Their linkage to the Guthrie is complete. Their broad kitchen countertops, backsplashes and seat covers intentionally match the Guthrie-blue of their eastern vista. Down on the street, they walk amid outdoor concerts that spring up here and there, and investigate emerging restaurants tucked into small spaces within the multiplying condo buildings, whose top-end units go for $3 million.
Karen Nasby had a salad with goat cheese-stuffed apricots at the recent opening of Spoonriver, a bistro swaddled into the first floor of the Humboldt Lofts, built from the ruins of the old Humboldt Mill, a 30-second walk from the Guthrie. The restaurant was started by the owner of Minneapolis' well-known Café Brenda, and it likely will overflow on theater nights.
Not everyone will cheer the Guthrie's opening, mainly because the swing to the riverfront could siphon home buyers and entertainment businesses from other parts of the city. The magnetism of the riverfront "will draw some development potential from somewhere else,'' said David Lanegran, an urban geographer at Macalester College in St. Paul.
For example, the new Minnesota Twins ballpark will be built in the Warehouse District, an area foreseeing sizable residential and commercial growth around the stadium.
Peggy Lucas, an executive of Brighton Development, a firm building many of the condos along the river, said the drain could flow the other way, hurting housing activity in her area somewhat.
"The market is softening, but I think people will still come to the river,'' she said.
Lanegran, co-author of "Where We Live," a book about St. Paul and Minneapolis neighborhoods, thinks that neither the riverfront, on downtown's northeast edge, nor the Warehouse District, on downtown's northwest perimeter, will suffer much.
"I think downtown can accommodate both,'' he said, adding that the city's overall downtown strategy is "one of the best plans made in the country."
It was a long time in coming. The general plan, laid out in the 1970s, advanced sporadically as the economy ebbed and flowed and as large Minnesota employers changed ownership. Downtown's development also varied as developers wagered money on when and where baby boomers would move, and as the boomers' children decided where to live.
Although condos along the riverfront generally cost between $300,000 and $3 million, some small one-bedroom condos start in the $200,000 range and some rental units are subsidized under affordable-housing guidelines.
In all, more than 4,000 apartment homes, most of them owned, liberally sprinkle the riverfront district on both sides of the Mississippi, as part of the estimated $2 billion of investment in the area. The ratio of private to public spending is about 5 to 1, said Ann Calvert, the city's head of riverfront development.
As for that big, blue phenomenon facing St. Anthony Falls, the $125 million Guthrie is financed through $85 million in private donations, $15 million through loans and $25 million from state bonds.
It's a world of money. But as Shakespeare wrote, "All the world's a stage."
Aron Kahn can be reached at akahn@pioneerpress.com
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