Mill City Museum
Minneapolis
Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle

Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle overhauls a landmarked site with a project that looks to a city’s future while honoring its history

© Assassi Productions

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above. To see the people and products behind this project click on 'people & products.'

By Camille LeFevre

In the 1880s, Minneapolis was known as the "Flour Milling Capital of the World," its mills powered by St. Anthony Falls in the Mississippi River. The industry attracted so many workers that the city’s population grew by 350 percent in 10 years. At its zenith, 20 mills lined a river canal, including the Washburn A Mill. Designed by Austrian engineer William de la Barre and built in 1878 at the site of a former mill destroyed by an explosion, the A Mill was the largest, most technologically advanced facility of its time. At peak production, it ground enough flour for 12 million loaves of bread per day.

In 1928, the A Mill was rebuilt after another explosion. Following the decline of the milling industry after World War I, the A Mill closed in 1965. In 1971, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places, and 12 years later it was designated a National Historic Landmark.

In 1991, the A Mill was destroyed by fire again. As its shell smoldered, Nina Archabal, director of the Minnesota Historical Society (MHS) in St. Paul, convinced local authorities to move the fire hoses that were pushing against the stone walls, threatening their structural integrity. The ruin, she emphasized, had value as a historic site.

Weeks later, Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle (MS&R) of Minneapolis, which had been consulting with the city and MHS on riverfront development, produced a model showing how the mill’s north shell along the river could be preserved as a ruin and the rest of the building redeveloped. The firm got the job and began fortifying the ruin walls with a steel-stabilization structure designed to contrast with the existing remains through its red color and nonorthogonal geometry. Then renovation began.

Last September, the Washburn A Mill reopened, featuring the 80,000-square-foot Mill City Museum on the lower three levels and in the north ruin courtyard. The multipurpose building also houses 62,000 square feet of office space: MS&R’s offices on the seventh and eighth floors, and The McKnight Foundation (also designed by MS&R) on the fourth and fifth.

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Location:
Minneapolis

Gross square footage:
100,000 sq. ft.

Total Construction Cost:
$20 million

Owner:
Minnesota Historical Society

Architect:
Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd. (MS&R)
710 South 2nd Street, 7th Floor
Minneapolis, MN 55401
Tel: (612) 375-0336
Fax: (612) 342-2216
www.msrltd.com