Insider Guide: Tom Fisher

As dean of the University of Minnesota's College of Design, Thomas Fisher's keen eye and knowledge of architecture have earned him a national reputation. Tour his top picks for the area's best in design and architecture.

10 Architecturally Significant Buildings You Must See

Guthrie Theater
Jean Nouvel and the Architectural Alliance, architects; Tom Oslund, landscape architect
This big, blue beauty quite literally gets us thinking outside the box, with the ramp connecting its two-story lobby constituting the longest inhabited cantilevered structure in the country and with the scene shop located across the street, on top of the parking ramp, with a bridge over the road enabling sets to be wheeled backstage to the 3 theaters high in the air. Apart from great theater, the building also features extensive public space, all accessible without a ticket and several well-designed bars and restaurants, with views of the Oslund-designed Gold Medal Park next door. A must-see.

Walker Art Center addition
Herzog & DeMeuron and HGA, architects; Michel Devigne, landscape architect
This addition to the original building, designed by AIA Gold Medalist, Edward Larrabee Barnes, offers a compelling counterpoint to the dark-brick and largely blank older building. With new galleries strewn across the site and irregularly shaped windows cut into the crumpled-metal cladding of the apparently levitating cube that contains the new theater and restaurants, the addition takes the idea of randomness farther than any other architects have tried to go. Like all good art, this building provokes strong reactions and demands a visit.

Mill City Museum
Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, architects
From the street, this looks like a renovated old mill, but once inside you realize that the museum, dedicated to the history of the flour industry that first put the Twin Cities on the map as a major metropolis, consists of a modern glass-and-steel insertion into the ruins of a mill destroyed by fire. All the way through its public spaces, and up its display elevator to the rooftop overlook, you will look out into one of the most striking spaces anywhere in the world - a multi-story stone shell of a structure, whose outdoor courtyard has become one of the most popular wedding and entertainment venues in the city. It gives flour power new meaning.

Minneapolis Public Library
Pelli, Clarke, Pelli and the Architectural Alliance, architects. Shane Coen, landscape architect
The new Minneapolis Public Library has a fitting symbol over its wedge-shaped atrium - a wing-like structure that projects over the streets on either side and looks like a giant paper-airplane that has alighted on the roof, like the ideas that take flight from reading the books within. Clad in fritted glass in patterns that reflect the Minnesota landscape - prairie grass, aspen trees, water, and snow - the library has stunning interior spaces, indoor fireplaces and ample daylight with which to read from its sizable collection, with a coffee shop, bookstore and plaza to draw in passersby.

Minneapolis Institute of Art addition
Michael Graves and RSP architects; Damon Farber, landscape architect
The addition of new galleries and gathering spaces to the McKim, Mead and White original museum and the Kenzo Tange additions has made the MIA one of the largest museums in the Midwest. While largely blank on the exterior, the Graves addition has elegant exhibition space and a new lobby that blend seamlessly into the rest of the museum, providing excellent rooms within which to view art. Also, don't forget to visit the elegant outdoor garden and peek into the lobby of the new Children's Theatre, also designed by Graves, with its timber structure just waiting for a child's imagination.

Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota
Frank Gehry and Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, architects
One of the first major projects Frank Gehry designed outside of southern California, and the first to use his now-famous curvy metal cladding, the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota has inspiring spaces to view its substantial permanent collection and frequent traveling exhibitions. About to receive several new additions, also designed by Gehry, the museum represents an historical moment in the making of architecture, for it was the last building drawn by hand by an architect who has led his profession toward more integrated, computerized forms of practice. Bring your sunglasses on a sunny day.

Rapson Hall
Steven Holl, Vincent James, Ellerbe Becket, and Rozeboom Miller, architects; Rebecca Krinke, landscape architect
The author's prerogative involves including his own building on a top-10 list. The addition to Rapson Hall, designed by Time magazine's Architect of the Year, Steven Holl, shows how great architecture can be done on a shoestring budget. Containing a large part of the University of Minnesota's College of Design, Rapson Hall has interlocking spaces, day lit studios, and generous public space, all wrapped in a beautiful copper-clad exterior that frames four gardens, the first of which was designed by landscape architect Rebecca Krinke and public artist John Roloff. Come in and see the work on display and watch our gardens grow.

McNamara Alumni Center
Antoine Predock and KKE, architects and landscape architects
This sculptural building at the edge of the University of Minnesota campus evokes, in the exterior of its memorial hall, the "split rock" on which the lighthouse sits on Minnesota's north shore and, in the tapered shape of its copper-clad office building, the "iron range" mountains that run through northern Minnesota. The interior water courses and natural wood cladding of the lobby remind us of Minnesotan's love of our wood cabins by the lake. And don't miss the copper-clad restaurant and Johnson Room on the first floor, which have a remarkable cave-like feel unlike anything you have ever seen before.

Cathedral of Saint Paul
Emmanuel Masqueray
Begun in 1906 and opened in 1915, the namesake Cathedral of St. Paul provides one of the most monumental exteriors and one of the most impressive interior spaces of any building in the state. The recently re-clad copper dome stands approximately as high as the building is long, and the scale of the exterior ornament and interior vaults will cause even a non-believer to feel a degree of humility before something so overpowering. As one of the largest cathedrals in the country, this one is not to be missed.

Minnesota State Capitol
Cass Gilbert, architect
Designed in the 1890s by Minnesota architect, Cass Gilbert, the Minnesota State Capitol remains one of the gems of Beaux Arts architecture in the country. Clad in Georgia marble, with a dome that recalls that of St. Peters in Rome, the capitol provides beautifully proportioned and elegantly ornamented interiors for the state legislature and governor. Even the most die-hard modernist has to admire the skill and craft that went into this building, and respect the way in which it has been carefully maintained as the political home of every Minnesotan. Vote with your feet and pay it a visit.

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University of Minnesota-College of Design