Negotiating historic continuity in the urban landscape: Linking historic preservation, economic development, and public policy

The Central Riverfront in Minneapolis was the birthplace of the city, and like so many cities that developed during the 19th century, the site and situation of the city dictated its location. Along the Central Riverfront the Falls of St. Anthony offered massive waterpower during a period when waterpower was a source of wealth. The industrial landscape that was created around these falls resulted in a polluted maze of single-use buildings lining the banks of the river. Following many phases of economic restructuring since 1920, this polluted industrial landscape became a shell of what it once was. The process of transforming a landscape from industrial wasteland into an economically viable urban space is a project of time and patience. In 1972, the city of Minneapolis completed a publication entitled Mississippi/Minneapolis that laid the foundation for redevelopment of the Central Riverfront. The project included four separate districts with a design framework that included leisure activities, housing, industrial parks and commercial districts, as well as consideration of environmental quality and environmental design. The basic concepts of the 1972 plan have remained intact, while the details have been all but abandoned. With each decade new design ideas were presented, new buildings were introduced, as public policy shifted back and forth from the desire for a comprehensive plan to immediate investment. In this study I explore a series of questions specific to the Minneapolis riverfront redevelopment since 1972. The overarching question asks: how is historic preservation and historicism used as a tool for Central Riverfront redevelopment? As part of this exploration of historic preservation, issues of the economic relationship between private and public expenditures along the riverfront, the public policy debates that surround this redevelopment, and the overall physical condition of the Central Riverfront come into focus. Throughout this study I have offered insights into Minneapolis' planning process and the contextualization of old and new buildings through historic preservation and historicism in the Central Riverfront redevelopment.