With the reorientation of the Walker Art Center’s main entrance from Vineland Place to Hennepin Avenue in conjunction with a building expansion that will be completed in April 2005, the Center’s address has changed from 725 Vineland Place to 1750 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55403. The expansion, designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron and the Minneapolis-based architectural firm Hammel, Green and Abrahamson, Inc., opens the Walker to downtown Minneapolis with a new entrance plaza on the city’s central artery.
The new Walker links distinct areas of the city—natural, residential, and metropolitan—physically and metaphorically connecting the urban downtown with Minneapolis’ Uptown communities and neighborhoods. Along Hennepin Avenue, the grade of the street is mirrored by the slope of the Walker’s new General Mills Hennepin Lounge, blurring the distinction between inside and out. Asymmetric windows punctuate the south wing’s façade, revealing activity inside the Walker to passersby and connecting visitors to the life of the street.