Gold Medal Park
Encyclopedia
Guthrie Theater
The Guthrie Theater is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the result of the desire of Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Oliver Rea, and Peter Zeisler to create a resident acting company that would produce and perform the classics in...
in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
, USA. Designed by landscape architect
Landscape architect
A landscape architect is a person involved in the planning, design and sometimes direction of a landscape, garden, or distinct space. The professional practice is known as landscape architecture....
Tom Oslund, the park is owned by the city of Minneapolis and opened in May 2007. It takes its inspiration from the Dakota Indians
Sioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
burial mounds that are found through Minnesota. It consists of a 32 feet (9.8 m) mound, reached by a spiral walkway rising out of a green lawn with 300 trees. The park, just east of the Guthrie Theater
Guthrie Theater
The Guthrie Theater is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the result of the desire of Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Oliver Rea, and Peter Zeisler to create a resident acting company that would produce and perform the classics in...
, provides the Mill District neighborhood with some rare green space.
Built on a strip of land next to the new Guthrie Theater and the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
, the park features specially designed luminescent benches, a prominent 32 feet (9.8 m) mound and mature trees brought in from as far away as New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
.
The William W. and Nadine M. McGuire Family Foundation leased the land for 10 years, starting in 2007, from the city of Minneapolis and the Guthrie, each of which owns about half of the property.
Across the street from the park and adjacent to the river is Remembrance Garden which is a tribute to the victims of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge collapse. It was dedicated on August 1, 2011, the fourth anniversary of the collapse.