The Cultural Landscape Foundation and the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota receive an Inaugural Docomomo Modernism in America Award

Media Contact: Nord Wennerstrom | T: 202.255.7076 | E: nord@tclf.org

Advocacy Award of Excellence for Campaign on Behalf of Peavey Plaza

“One of the most successful advocacy campaigns in the last several years” - Docomomo US Director and Awards Committee Chair Jack Pyburn, FAIA

Washington, DC (February 25, 2014) – The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) was today named a recipient of an inaugural Docomomo Modernism in America Award, receiving an Advocacy Award of Excellence for work to prevent the demolition of Peavey Plaza in Minneapolis, MN, and promote the site’s rehabilitation. TCLF partnered with the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota (PAM) and Docomomo US/Minnesota in a multi-year and ongoing effort to rehabilitate this pioneering work of Modernist landscape architecture, and progenitor of the “park plaza” typology, designed by M. Paul Friedberg. Docomomo US Director and Awards Committee Chair Jack Pyburn, FAIA, called the effort “[O]ne of the most successful advocacy campaigns in the last several years.” The award will be formally presented during a ceremony at Docomomo’s US National Symposium March 13-15, 2014 in Houston, TX.

“We are very honored to be a recipient of this inaugural Docomomo Advocacy Award of Excellence,” said Charles A. Birnbaum, Founder and President of The Cultural Landscape Foundation. “Peavey Plaza was saved because it is beloved, and because a solid partnership with the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota and strong communications, including concepts developed pro bono by the plaza’s original landscape architect M. Paul Friedberg, proved there were alternatives to demolition. Now it's time to fund Peavey's rehabilitation.”

Milestones in the Peavey Plaza campaign include its listing in TCLF’s Landslide 2008: Marvels of Modernism and PAM’s 2008 list of Minnesota’s 10 Most Endangered Historic Places and extends to its listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.  Peavey also appears on the cover of Shaping the American Landscape, which profiles the lives and work of more than 150 practitioners, and the campaign received extensive coverage from national and local media including the New York Times, National Public Radio, CBS News, the Huffington Post, Landscape Architecture Magazine, The Architect’s Newspaper, Architectural Record, Metropolis, Planetizen, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and many others.

In announcing the awards Docomomo issued the following statement:

The Advocacy Award of Excellence is given to the coordinated efforts on behalf of Peavey Plaza in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Designed in 1975, Peavey Plaza is an extension of Minneapolis’s renowned Nicollet Mall. In 2011 the city looked to redesign the Plaza, paralleling the renovation of the adjacent Orchestra Hall. A consortium of local and national organizations came together to successfully communicate Peavey Plaza’s on-going importance and prevent its demolition. The Board of Directors of Docomomo US is impressed by the well-coordinated collective nature of these efforts; their outreach to a wide audience including local constituents and national interests; and their use of a combination of advocacy tools including the solicitation of pro bono design concepts by the plaza’s original landscape architect M. Paul Friedberg. “Peavey Plaza is a prime example of one of our most threatened typologies: modern public landscape design,” states Docomomo US Director and Awards Committee Chair Jack Pyburn, FAIA. “There are numerous modern urban landscapes across the country that are in a state of neglect, disrepair and threat due to development pressures and lack of broader community understanding of their value and potential. The quality and significance of Peavey Plaza is extremely high and we anticipate this award will serve as a vehicle to support the funding of its rehabilitation and as an example to broaden awareness of and encourage greater support for the preservation of modernist landscape architecture.”

About The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF)

The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) is a 15-year-old non-profit foundation that provides people with the ability to see, understand and value landscape architecture and its practitioners, in the way many people have learned to do with buildings and their designers. Through its Web site, lectures, outreach and publishing, TCLF broadens the support and understanding for cultural landscapes nationwide to help safeguard our priceless heritage for future generations. TCLF makes a special effort to heighten the awareness of those who impact cultural landscapes, assist groups and organizations working to increase the appreciation and recognition of cultural landscapes, and develop educational tools for young people to better connect them to their cultural landscape environs. 

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