Opening Friday 3/23
In honor of Parker's acclaimed career as an architect and educator, the College of Design at the University of Minnesota has organized an exhibition celebrating more than a dozen of his projects. Parker, who died last July at 88, was celebrated for making modernist architectural principles accessible to the public. After graduating from MIT in 1950, he worked for revered modernist Eero Saarinen, contributing to his famed St. Louis Gateway Arch. He moved to Minneapolis in the mid-1950s and established Leonard Parker Associates in 1958. To complement his vigorous practice, which frequently took him to Korea, Parker taught architecture at the U from 1959 to 1993, influencing generations of industrious young architects. His classes were not for the meek. Among other buildings, Minnesota Public Radio, the Minneapolis Convention Center and the Humphrey School of Public Affairs are all Parker. His Mondale Hall (1978) on the U campus, with one of the state's earliest green roofs, is a visual gateway to the Washington Avenue bridge. Parker also designed embassies in Canada, Korea and Chile and an addition to the Minnesota Judicial Center.
