So many parts of the USA relate their geography to the old world countries of their first immigrants. For example, the Maine coastline evokes the Celtic shores of Scotland and Ireland while the Appalachian mountains recall the hills of Wales where many of the early settlers originated from. When my Greyhound bus entered into the state of Minnesota over half a century ago I was reminded of Scandinavian countries and Finland in particular. The extensive pine forests. the scattering of lakes, the long summer days all contributed to this feeling and, indeed, it was largely Scandinavian people who first immigrated into the area.

The state capital, Minneapolis, with its fine examples of modernist buildings reminded me of the best examples of Scandinavian architects, in particular the Finn, Alvar Aalto. I enjoyed walking around this clean, pedestrian-friendly city, admiring the beautiful new buildings which provided such a change from the then dismally unimaginative examples of British post-war architecture.

Most enjoyable were the examples of street art such as the Alexander Calder mobiles I came across. Here is a photograph of one I took (with my reflection too).

A building which particularly struck me had a neoclassical high-arched facade reflected into a basin of water surrounding it. One of the few photos I took of the States during my visit is of this structure.

I have since found out that this exquisite edifice is the current ING Reliastar Building and former Northwestern National Life Insurance Building. It was designed in 1963 by Minoru Yamasaki, a Japanese – American architect whose buildings include the original World Trade Centre in New York. Together with Edward Durell he is considered to be one of the two leading masters of ‘New Formalism’. Certainly there is a neoclassical air about his Minnesota building which links it to a previous era of Italian fascist architecture, best exemplified in the works of Guerrini and Romano in the EUR quarter of Rome, and forwards to an area which later became rather useful to me, the monumental entrance to Florence’s Careggi hospital. My post on this building is at: https://longoio3.com/2020/02/25/21218/

Fast forwarding to the present times it came as something of a shock to me that the clean, friendly, modern city of Minneapolis is now the centre of violent urban confrontation as a result of the murder of one of its citizens by a policeman. I could not believe that this was the same city but then a lot has changed since 1970! I pray that beautiful Minneapolis will once again return to a more peaceful state despite the fact that the United States is sadly living through the presidency of one of the most confrontational leaders it has ever known.