One of Blu Dot’s founding triumvirate, Charlie Lazor is also the principle of Minneapolis-based architectural firm Lazor Office. In 2004 he completed FlatPak House, a prefabricated home for his family in Kenwood. Lazor recently took time to answer some of life’s most—and possibly least—pressing questions. What’s the last book you read? Snippy and Snappy by Wanda Gag. What’s your most embarrassing…

“With the reopening of the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis now seems poised to become a major design mecca,” wrote Metropolis in May 2005. Walker design director and curator Andrew Blauvelt takes issue with the magazine’s use of the future tense. With a rich design community working in artistic, aca¬demic, and commercial realms, not to mention the building boom that’s adding cultural facilities designed…

Since its inception, the Walker Art Center has embraced design not only as a programming activity but also as an important element in forming its public image. The Walker practically invented the modernist institutional identity for museums, which favored sans-serif typefaces, generous white space, and a grid system to arrange words and images. This style had dominated its graphic identity for more…

In 1999, the Walker Art Center engaged the architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron to develop a master plan and design for an expanded facility. Central to the Walker’s vision was the creation of not only additional galleries to display its growing collections, but also new spaces, such as a theater, to house and present multidisciplinary programs. The concept also included a number of gathering places…

The Walker Art Center project was the first of many museum commissions that New York–based architect Edward Larrabee Barnes would receive during his long and distinguished career. In May 1971, the new building opened to great critical acclaim and quickly became a national model for museum design. Art critic Hilton Kramer declared, “In meeting its obligation to provide contemporary works of art with…