Avenue of the Arts

Back in the 1990s, Evan Mauer, visionary head of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, noted that a number of landmarks lined up along Third Avenue South between the Mississippi River and East 26^th Street. Mauer proposed that Third Avenue be appreciated as an "Avenue of the Arts," and that both adjacent buildings and the streetscape-infrastructure reflect a higher design sensibility.

The impressive sequence of features and landmarks along Third Avenue South begins with the Mississippi Riverfront near St. Anthony Falls, and continues past City Hall, Hennepin County Government Center and its twin plazas, buildings by the likes of I. M. Pei and Partners and Kohn Pedersen Fox, an interior landscape by Maya Lin, designer of the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington, D.C., Central Lutheran Church, the new convention center, Washburn Fair Oaks Park, The Art Institute, Children's Theater, and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

Major designed enhancements since Mauer's proposal include the Frank Lloyd Wright Bridge over I-94, designed by Tony Puttnam of Taliesin Architects, Frank Lloyd Wright's successor practice, and the exquisitely patterned parking ramp located on the east side of Third Avenue between Central Lutheran and the convention center.