Peavey Park Plaza, 1111 Nicolet Mall, Minneapolis, Hennepin County, MN

Significance: The plaza is significant for its association with the series of post-WWII urban renewal projects that begun in the late 1950s and continued into the 1970s in downtown Minneapolis. The plaza is a designed landscape constructed in an effort to connect the system of parks and boulevards known as the Grand Rounds. As such, it reflects important post-WWII recreational development efforts, and community planning and development trends in the city. Peavey Plaza is also significant as a designed landscape. Constructed in 1975 in the modern style, the plaza is an example of a sunken park plaza. This type of urban plaza design emerged during the late 1950s and continued into the 970s. The sunken park plaza departed from previous landscape architecture design principles and represented a new urban park aesthetic. The plaza was designed by noted landscape architect M. Paul Friedberg, FASLA, who is associated with the development of urban park plaza design and the application of a modern aesthetic applied to park design. Peavey Plaza's defining features include the use of concrete to create hard space, water features, and green planting to produce an amphitheater-like environment characteristic of sunken park plaza design.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N17
Survey number: HALS MN-2
Building/structure dates: 1975 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1979 Subsequent Work