Midway Contemporary Art Center

By Aaron Betsky - 13 December 2024

With the renovation of a former limousine garage in Minneapolis, b+ (bplus.xyz) has brought its tactic of selectively slicing and dicing concrete structures to the United States. Taking the attitude that they would prefer to strip and reveal, rather than add and pretty up, they have left the concrete structure marred, but strangely more beautiful than they found it.

The Midway Contemporary Art organization is typical of many such bootstrap operations in the United States and elsewhere. Founded at the turn of millennium by artists and arts advocates, it has supported artists by helping them to organize and fund installations and the making of their work, both directly and through small grants. Recently, they have also built up a library of art books, which they would like to have available to the community. To make that possible, as well as to consolidate operations that have existed for many years in different locations around Minneapolis, they purchased the two-story building several years ago and called in b+, who has a particular fondness for such rough structures. B+ in turn worked with Snow Kreilich Architects, a local firm that has built up a strong reputation for both private and cultural projects.

The architects’ largest intervention consisted of removing half of the second floor to create a double-height gallery space in the front of the building. The back part of the building then contains support spaces on two levels. B+ left the steel structure that frames the building in place in the new space, relishing its revealed patina and sculptural shape. They also, as is their wont, left all the marks of where they had made their incisions, so that the inner waffle of the remaining element of the second story is visible. They then insulated the structure and applied a thin layer of spray-on concrete to the outside to protect those façades. They replaced the original windows with thermal glazing and turned what had been the...