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History in the Making
To architect Tom Meyer, past is prologue
By Michelle Baltus
Photo by ERIC MOORE
But engineering held little appeal for Meyer. Upon his acceptance at the University of Minnesota, he elected to study architecture instead—a practice also taught within the Institute of Technology at the time. He felt the field had virtue, he recalls, though he had never talked to an architect and knew nothing at all about the industry. “It took a couple years to gain a passion for it, but I did,” Meyer says.
As an architect of the future, Meyer built on the past, purposefully merging old with new to create singular homes, offices, and public spaces. Highly successful reuse and renovation projects, including several award-winning urban lofts and the spectacular Mill City Museum in Minneapolis, have been hallmarks of his career.
“Old things have an inherent value to people, which is important not just for the sake of preservation, but for the lessons to be learned for new architecture,” he says.
Even as an undergraduate, Meyer was drawn to the downtown Minneapolis riverfront, a desolate place at that time. Yet to Meyer and his friends, who frequently explored the area, it was an architectural playground of historic proportion. “All that big, physical stuff, all the ruins and mills and locks and dams, made architecture very tangible to me,” he says. “That’s when I began to see buildings, particularly industrial buildings, as really cool. That’s when things started clicking for me.”
Meyer’s fascination with the riverfront did more than inspire him; it helped shape his career. After graduating in 1972, Meyer spent seven formative years working for noted Minneapolis architect James Stageberg. He then briefly officed out of his home before gravitating back to the Minneapolis riverfront, where he leased office space in the abandoned General Mills complex. There he met dancer and fellow tenant Sage Cowles. When Sage and her husband, John, needed an architect for a historic building renovation, Meyer immediately came to mind because of his conservation instinct.
“Sage and I engaged Tom, and I took an immediate liking to him, as did Sage,” John recalls. “We liked his ideas and the way his mind worked.”
The Cowles hired his fledgling firm, Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle (MS&R), to transform a century-old electrical shop in downtown Minneapolis into a sophisticated urban home with an office and dance studio. Throughout the process, Meyer never went forward without first looking back, using materials and methods that respected the physical integrity and gritty character of the building. An exterior glass block wall brightens the dance studio, for example, while wire mesh panels and pipe railings on the stairwell complement exposed ceiling beams and structural columns. The design earned Meyer one of the several honor awards he has received from the Minnesota chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), which praised it as “an extraordinary and deceptive project well done.”
Photo by Lea Babcock Scherer
“Tom brings huge amounts of ideas to the table,” John says. Many of those notions, such as an owner’s bedroom attached to the Cowles farmhouse via a glass-covered pergola at a slight angle, continue to garner John’s appreciation. “Eleven degrees may not sound like much, it may seem hardly noticeable or a slight mistake, but the angles he chose were perfect for the site,” he explains. “I still marvel at it.”
Meyer’s resume also includes award-winning new construction projects. He designed David and Patty Schall’s Edina residence in response to its L-shaped site and the couple’s wish for a family home that combined highly functional, cozy domestic spaces with Asian aesthetics and Prairie lines. “Rolling those three into one took a lot of skill,” David acknowledges. Meyer rose to the challenge, using juxtaposed ceiling heights, materials, and textures to create both intimate and airy rooms that delight the eye. “There’s a variety of experiences [within the home],” Patty says. Meyer also brilliantly engaged the landscape by integrating interior and exterior architectural elements. A kitchen counter extends outside to create exterior counter space, structural beams on the interior become pergola beams on the exterior, and walls of windows provide glorious 360-degree views.
Meyer’s vision and leadership were essential to the two-year project, David says. “Tom is a really generous and humble person, but he clearly has the drive to get things done and get them done well.”
Meyer himself considers the design of the Mill City Museum his most challenging project to date—and his most rewarding. The unique eight-story building, which is defined by the charred ruins of the 1870s Washburn Crosby A Mill, represents much of what he holds dear. The project is the culmination of his 30-plus years of dedication to the Minneapolis riverfront, which has ranged from historic district planning to the early stabilization of the mill ruins.
“That place is in his soul,” says Nina Archabal, director of the Minnesota Historical Society, which owns and operates the museum. “As the architect, he brought a sensitivity and awareness of the significance of the story as well as a tremendous respect for what physically remained. It was his idea to leave the ruined courtyard, which I think is one of the great public places in Minnesota.”
The American Institute of Architects agreed, acknowledging the design with a 2005 National Honor Award. The National Trust for Historic Preservation also honored the project for helping preserve, rehabilitate, and interpret America’s architectural and cultural heritage. Highlights of the remarkable design include the expansive glass wall that ingeniously melds the museum and mill ruins; the Flour Tower, a 12-minute ride on a freight elevator that captures the sights and sounds of milling; and spectacular views of St. Anthony Falls.
“Tom was really able to embrace the enormous complexity of the building and resist the urge to sanitize it and clean it up too much,” says architect Paul Udris, who worked with Meyer on the project.
Perhaps that’s because Meyer understands that places are really about people. “We [at MS&R] love doing houses because they remind us to keep things on a human scale,” he says. “With really large projects, you can get lost in the abstract and forget there’s a person whose hand is going to be touching a countertop.”
Or pulling back a shower curtain. In their riverfront loft, John and Sage Cowles have a custom shower curtain with an image of the 1908 Minneapolis skyline as it would have appeared from that same location. Tom Meyer might have a soft spot for old industrial architecture, but nothing he does is run of the mill.
Michele Baltus is a St. Paul freelance writer and editor.
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