Westminster Presbyterian Church Minneapolis, Minnesota

Westminster Presbyterian Church is a prominent institution in downtown Minneapolis with far-reaching community service and social justice programs. The Church enlisted Coen + Partners to complete a new design for the landscape surrounding the 110-year-old building; the firm was challenged to create a new presence for Westminster along both 12th Street and Nicollet Mall, a meaningful courtyard for receptions and ceremonies, and a new memorial columbarium containing nearly 2,000 companion niches.

Views of the reception and columbarium spaces are obscured from the street by a patinaed metal screen, custom-designed with patterns abstracted from those in Westminster’s original stained glass windows. A stone wall along 12th Street contrasts and complements the materiality of the church itself, while groundcover gardens are interspersed throughout the landscape spaces, providing color and texture. The columbarium is accessed by a subtly sloping procession from the street level. The reception and ceremony area consists of stone paving, a birch garden, and a series of vine-covered screens. A narrow water rill parallels 12th Street, reflecting the linear form of the columbarium wall in the adjacent space.

• Collaboration: Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle Architects