Riverside Plaza (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

USA / Minnesota / Minneapolis / Minneapolis, Minnesota
 apartment complex  Add category
Almost unnoticeable in this image, Riverside Plaza is from the ground a very visible and explicit example of 1970's modernist, and brutalist architecture. The apartment complex was designed by Ralph Rapson, and opened in 1973. It is in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, on the West Bank. One of the structures, first known as Cedar Square West, was featured on television as the residence of Mary Richards in the Mary Tyler Moore show.

The area was originally planned to be part of a utopian design that would have seen 12,500 units spread across four "neighborhoods", housing a total of 30,000 people.

About half of the complex is reserved for subsidized housing, much more than the 20% Rapson had originally planned.

Derisive nicknames for Riverside Plaza include "slum in the sky," "ghetto in the sky," and the "crack stacks". A string of homicides in the early 1990s contributed to a negative image. University student residents have been a declining portion of the population, while East African immigrants have dominated in recent years. A more recent nickname is "Little Somalia", reflecting the modern makeup.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverside_Plaza
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   44°58'9"N   93°14'57"W

Comments

  • Crack Stacks! Mogadishu Towers!
  • Time for Little Somalia to diversify. Other immigrant communities have moved on, time for a big population shift with a time limit on section 8.
This article was last modified 11 years ago