Dynamic design & history
The park, which opened in 2007, was designed by landscape architect Tom Oslund to create an open space adjacent to two Minneapolis landmarks, the Guthrie Theater and the Mississippi River. Gold Medal Park is the first substantial green space added to downtown Minneapolis since two city parks were built in 1883 and West River Parkway was expanded in the 1990s.
In 2014, the Conservancy purchased the majority of the parkland owned by the Guthrie, then secured a 50-year lease for the rest of the land, owned by the City of Minneapolis. An agreement with the city defines the Conservancy’s continuing maintenance responsibilities. Between 2015–2017, four sculptures from the Walker Art Center’s Sculpture Garden were relocated to the park.
Press About the Park
LandscapeOnline.com, Gold Medal Design at Gold Medal Park
A pair of enormous, red-painted steel beams meet at their ends, creating an alarmingly improbable triangle. A longer beam forms the third leg of the tripod, jutting some 38 feet into the air. Three flat, centerless discs unify the junction. The effect of this characteristic work by di Suvero evokes the force we attach to the atomic world: dynamic, red-hot, powerful, and strangely elegant. Source: Walker Art Center website.