Critic at Large: Slouching Toward Minneaplois

Hohmann, Heidi

Critic at Large: Slouching Toward Minneaplois

File

2003_Hohmann_SlouchingTowardMinneapolis.pdf (2.44 MB)

Date

2003-01-01

Authors

Hohmann, Heidi

Authors

Person

Hohmann, Heidi

Associate Professor

Organizational Units

Organizational Unit

Landscape Architecture

Landscape Architecture is an environmental design discipline. Landscape architects actively shape the human environment: they map, interpret, imagine, draw, build, conceptualize, synthesize, and project ideas that transform landscapes. The design process involves creative expression that derives from an understanding of the context of site (or landscape) ecosystems, cultural frameworks, functional systems, and social dynamics. Students in our program learn to change the world around them by re-imagining and re-shaping the landscape to enhance its aesthetic and functional dimensions, ecological health, cultural significance, and social relevance. The Department of Landscape Architecture was established as a department in the Division of Agriculture in 1929. In 1975, the department's name was changed to the Department of Landscape Architecture and Community Planning. In 1978, community planning was spun off from the department, and the Department of Landscape Architecture became part of the newly established College of Design. Dates of Existence: 1929–present

Department

Landscape Architecture

Abstract

The Federal Courthouse Plaza (FCP) in Minneapolis is a typical Martha Schwartz project. Critically acclaimed, it uses a minimalist design vocabulary, innovates with new materials, and expands on theoretical ideas she has previously explored. Located between the late modernist federal courthouse by Kohn Pedersen Fox to the north and the Richardsonian Romanesque city hall to the south, the half-block plaza was designed and constructed fo the Government Services Administration.