Join MNSAH for our events and tours. Although our name sounds exclusive, we are not. In fact, many MNSAH members are simply people who love architecture and are eager to experience the fascinating built environment of Minnesota and the Upper Midwest with their fellow enthusiasts.
MNSAH Fall Tour 2026 – University of Minnesota – St. Paul Campus
MNSAH Fall Tour
University of Minnesota – St. Paul Campus
Past Events
Works in Progress
MNSAH invites you to attend Works in Progress on Thursday, March 27, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. via Zoom. Our presentations include:
Committee Chair Gary Reetz with introduce excerpts from Minnesota Modern Masters video interviews with Mohammed Lawal and Quin Scott of LSE Architects, and James Garrett Jr. and Nathan Johnson of 4RM+ULA.
Fall Tour 2024
MNSAH’s fall tour will feature Open Book, a center for reading, writing, and book arts located on Washington Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. Open Book is the umbrella organization formed by three nonprofits, The Loft Literary Center (an educational and support organization for writers), The Minnesota Center for Book Arts (a visual arts center offering programs in letterpress printing, bookbinding, and papermaking), and Milkwood Editions, an independent publisher of literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry).
The three nonprofits decided to join forces and create a first-of-its-kind center for book and literary arts. To begin the process, they called on Garth Rockcastle, of Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, a firm interviewed for MNSAH’s Minnesota Modern Masters program, and developer Chuck Leer to assist in the selection of a building. Surprisingly, three vacant nineteenth-century buildings were selected for the project; buildings very much in need of revitalization. While the three organizations were somewhat daunted by the condition of the buildings, they forged ahead with the project. At first, they expected that each organization would reside in their own building. But instead, Garth Rockcastle created a remarkable design that integrated the interiors with dynamic spaces that participate in each other, and engage both the staff and visitors. Original architectural features were retained, recalling the past lives of the buildings. At the time, Nancy Gaschott, project manager for Open Book, stated, “They’ve made magic of a building. To me, it’s a revolutionary way to design a building.”
MNSAH 2024 Annual Meeting & Gebhard Awards
This year’s annual meeting includes the announcement of the David Gebhard Awards while our keynote speaker, Victoria Young, will transport MNSAH members to England where we’ll learn about her groundbreaking research that shines new light on the 1895 completion of a side chapel in the Chapel at Keble College, Oxford University, by the Yorkshire-born John Thomas Micklethwaite, an underappreciated architect of the Gothic Revival.
Works In Progress
MNSAH invites you to attend Works in Progress on Wednesday, March 13, 2024, at 7:00 p.m. via Zoom. Our presentations include:
For decades, the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) has maintained an inventory of thousands of buildings, sites, and structures in Minnesota. These records, previously only available in hard copy, have been digitized and are now accessible through MnSHIP, a new website allowing the public to easily locate information about properties throughout the state. This presentation will provide a demonstration of MnSHIP and how to access the wealth of information now readily available about historic properties in Minnesota.
Fall Tour 2023
MNSAH’s fall tour will feature two modernist homes perched on a dramatic hillside on St. Paul’s Lexington Parkway. The adjacent houses were designed just over 20 years apart for the same client.
In 1956, architect Elizabeth Scheu Close designed a house at 641 Lexington Parkway South for landscape architect Marion Fry and her husband Robert. Referred to as Fry I, the house is built into a steep, heavily wooded site that rises 36 feet from front to back. An open staircase provides access from the ground-floor level entry to the kitchen, dining, and living areas on the second floor. Generous expanses of windows provide an abundance of light and impressive views. Featuring concrete block and redwood siding, the house connects to the landscape via terraces and a deck that wraps around the upper level.
Spring Tour 2023
Why travel all the way to Rome when you can visit catacombs right here in Minnesota during MNSAH’s Spring Tour of Roselawn Cemetery?
Join your MNSAH friends for a behind-the-scenes tour of Roselawn Cemetery, including the 1904 Cemetery Chapel and Administration Building. Designed by Saint Paul architect and Cass Gilbert protégé Thomas Holyoke, this 1904 complex reflects the English Village Architecture style popular in the late-19th and early 20th centuries. The style is an idealized view of a time before the Industrial Revolution and a rejection of the “modernism” that resulted from it.
