Skip to main content

Main navigation

  • Oberlander Prize
    • LEARN: About Julie Bargmann
      LEARN: About Julie Bargmann
      • Learn About Julie Bargmann, the Inaugural Oberlander Prize Laureate
      • Hear From Julie Bargmann, the Oberlander Prize Laureate, and Others
      • Hear from the Oberlander Prize Jurors and Read the Jury Citation
      • Three Landscapes Designed by Julie Bargmann, the Inaugural Oberlander Prize Laureate
      • Personal Reflections on Julie Bargmann, the Inaugural Oberlander Prize Laureate, from Two Former Students
    • The Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Architecture Prize
      EXPLORE: The Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize
      • The Oberlander Prize Jury
      • Nominee Qualifications, Jury Process and Governance
      • Paul Goldberger on the Importance of the Prize
      • Nominate a Candidate
      • Why Create the Oberlander Prize?
      • Establishing the Oberlander Prize
      • Oberlander Prize Curator
      • The Oberlander Prize Advisory Committee
      • If the Oberlander Prize Had Existed 50 Years Ago...
    • Support the Oberlander Prize
      GET INVOLVED: Support the Oberlander Prize
      • View Prize Supporters
      • The 100 Women Campaign
      • Support the Oberlander Prize

    Julie Bargmann Wins the Inaugural Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize

  • Places
    • What Are Cultural Landscapes?
      LEARN: What Are Cultural Landscapes?
      • Designed Landscapes
      • Ethnographic Landscapes
      • Historic Sites
      • Vernacular Landscapes
    • The What's Out There Database
      EXPLORE: The What's Out There Database
      • Search the Database
      • Glossary of Types and Styles
      • Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park
      • Wells Petroglyph Preserve
      • Andrew Jackson's Hermitage
      • Buckner Homestead Historic District
    • City and Regional Guides
      VIEW: City and Regional Guides
      • NEW: What's Out There Olmsted
      • National Park Service Guides
      • Chicago
      • Denver
      • Houston
      • Indianapolis
      • Nashville
      • New Orleans
      • Raleigh-Durham
      • San Antonio
      • San Diego
      • San Francisco Bay Area
      • St. Louis and the Missouri River Valley
      • Toronto
      • Twin Cities
      • Washington, D.C.
    Planting Fields, Oyster Bay, NY

    Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park

    Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO

    Missouri Botanical Garden

  • People
    • About the Pioneers of Landscape Design
      LEARN: About the Pioneers of Landscape Design
      • Lawrence Halprin
      • Gertrude Deimel Kuh
      • Research Queries
      • See All Pioneers
    • Pioneers Oral Histories
      VIEW: Pioneers Oral Histories
      • Nicholas Quennell Oral History
      • Pamela Burton Oral History
      • See All Pioneers Oral Histories
    • Stewardship Stories
      READ: Stewardship Stories
      • It Takes One: Peggy King Jorde
      • See All Stewardship Stories
      • Stewardship Excellence Awards

    Frances Griscom Parsons

  • Stewardship
    • About the Landslide Program
      LEARN: About the Landslide Program
      • At-Risk Landscapes
      • Saved Landscapes
      • Lost Landscapes
    • Annual Landslides
      EXPLORE: Annual Landslides
      • Landslide 2022: The Olmsted Design Legacy
      • Landslide 2021: Race and Space
      • See All Annual Landslides
    • Nominate a Landslide
      GET INVOLVED: Nominate a Landslide
      • Giant Sequoia Range
      • Elizabeth Street Garden
      • Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument
    Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Bayfield, WI

    Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

  • Events
    • Learn
      LEARN
      • Conferences
      • Lectures
      • Exhibitions
      • Fellowships
      • Race & Space Conversations
    • explore
      EXPLORE
      • What’s Out There Weekends
      • Garden Dialogues
      • Walks & Talks
      • Annual Fall ASLA Excursion
      • International Spring Excursion
    • Participate
      PARTICIPATE
      • Annual Silent Auction
      • Receptions & Book Events
      • Sponsorship Opportunities

    Discover the "Aspen Idea"

  • Shop
  • Support

Site Menu

  • About
  • Donate
Home
TCLF logo
Home

Stewardship Excellence Award: The City of Minneapolis

Peavey Plaza

The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) has named the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota, as the recipient of the organization’s 2019 Stewardship Excellence Award, citing the successful revitalization of the city’s Peavey Plaza as a praiseworthy achievement deserving of recognition. The plaza officially reopened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, July 18, 2019, following years of work to rehabilitate the once-imperiled landscape.

Image
Mayor Jacob Frey speaks during the Grand Reopening of Peavey Plaza, Minneapolis, MN
Mayor Jacob Frey speaks during the Grand Reopening of Peavey Plaza, Minneapolis, MN - Photo by Charlene Roise, 2019

Peavey Plaza is the innovative park-plaza created in 1975 by celebrated Modernist landscape architect M. Paul Friedberg, who once described the two-acre site as “a mixture of the American green space and the European hard space.” Although plans were announced in 2012 to demolish the plaza, which lies adjacent to the city’s Orchestra Hall, the news quickly drew the attention of local and national advocacy organizations, including TCLF. Peavey Plaza was then listed in the National Register of Historic Places in January 2013. The city subsequently hired Coen + Partners to develop plans that meet the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties. With construction beginning in May 2018, the formerly dry fountains and other infrastructure were repaired, new trees, plantings, and lighting elements were put in place, and the plaza was updated to improve accessibility for the physically challenged.

TCLF’s Charles Birnbaum announced the Stewardship Excellence Award in a letter to Mayor Jacob Frey on September 24, 2019, noting that while the efforts and advocacy of myriad individuals and groups supported the years of planning and work to rehabilitate the plaza, it was “ultimately the leadership and decision-making of the city’s elected representatives that brought the project to fruition, rehabilitating a key public amenity and ensuring the survival of an historically significant, National Register-designated work of landscape architecture.”

Birnbaum further noted that “the long-term success of the efforts to bring Peavey Plaza back to life lies in the fact that the work was rooted in principles outlined in the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation, thus ensuring that both an historic designed landscape and a vibrant urban space would emerge in the end—one that retains the essential character of Friedberg’s Modernist design while accommodating the needs of the physically challenged.”

“In the larger context, the project also shows that the spirit and design intent behind great works of landscape architecture can be maintained while accommodating contemporary needs and uses,” he added.

Related Content

  • The rehabilitated Peavey Plaza, Minneapolis, MN

    Peavey Plaza

    Minneapolis, MN
  • The rehabilitated fountains of Peavey Plaza, Minneapolis, MN

    Peavey Plaza Reopens at Last

    Jul 22, 2019

  • M. Paul Friedberg

  • Image
    M. Paul Friedberg

    M. Paul Friedberg Oral History

See all related
Sponsors
Learn more about our sponsorship opportunities
Image
ABC Stone
Image
Bartlett Tree Experts
Image
Lapitec
Image
Victor Stanley
Image
Image

Stay Connected

© 2001-2023 The Cultural Landscape Foundation, all rights reserved. The marks "The Cultural Landscape Foundation", "connecting people to places", "Landslide", "Pioneers of American Landscape Design", "What's Out There", and the “Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize” are registered trademarks of The Cultural Landscape Foundation®