Memorial for Rapson is set at Guthrie

Last update: April 4, 2008 - 8:52 PM

A public memorial service for modernist architect Ralph Rapson will be held April 21 at 10 a.m. at the Guthrie Theater, 818 S. 2nd St., Minneapolis.

Following the memorial, there will be a reception at 11:30 a.m. at the University of Minnesota's School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, 89 SE. Church St. Buses will be available to transport attendees from the Guthrie to the university, where parking is at a premium.

Rapson, 93, died at his Minneapolis home March 29 of a heart attack. The memorial sites are closely linked to Rapson's career. He is best known as the designer of the original Guthrie Theater, which opened in 1963, and he was chairman of the university's architecture department from 1954 to 1984. His Guthrie building was razed in 2006, but its famous semicircular theater and thrust stage were reinterpreted in the new Guthrie designed by Jean Nouvel.

The Guthrie's current director, Joe Dowling, won Rapson's admiration and affection with his respectful treatment of the theater, said Rip Rapson, the architect's son. Dowling, whose mother died recently in Ireland, helped arrange for the theater to be the site of the Rapson memorial.

MARY ABBE

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