$100-Mil Theater May Doom Old Guthrie

MINNEAPOLIS-As plans proceed for a new $100-million theater for the Guthrie, the adjacent Walker Art Center says it plans to tear down the current theater complex once the move is completed. Larry Millett, longtimearchitecture critic for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, says the old complex was one of the finest examples of modernist architecture — it was designed by Minneapolis architect Ralph Rapson and the late Sir Tyrone Guthrie — when it was built in 1963.

Yet if a hue and cry among preservationists develops over the Walker’s plans to demolish the complex to make more room for parking, Millett says it may be hard to defend the old Guthrie on historic preservation grounds because of the many major remodeling the complex has undergone in the last four decades.