Available for use in the Manuscripts Division reading room. Advance notice is requested.
There are no restrictions on the use of materials in this collection. Copies can be requested if the condition of the originals warrants it.
Willard Thorsen collection (N 219), Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries, Minneapolis.
Willard Lien Thorsen was born on March 10, 1924 in Mason City, Iowa. He attended the University of Chicago and the University of Minnesota, earning his bachelor's degree in architecture in 1949. He began his career as a draftsman for Thorshov and Cerny in Minneapolis. In 1957, he founded Thorsen Associates; the firm changed its name to Thorsen & Thorshove, Inc. in 1961. Thorsen was an imaginative and innovative architect of shopping malls in Minnesota. He designed Apache Plaza (St. Anthony Village), Northtown (Blaine), Apache Mall (Rochester), Har-Mar Mall (Roseville), Brainerd Mall (Brainerd) and St. Croix Mall (Oak Park Heights). Willard Thorsen died in 1998.
The collection contains floor and foundation plans, roof and floor framing and foundation details for Apache Plaza shopping center, the second enclosed mall constructed in Minnesota. Apache Plaza was known for its modern construction, including a roof marked by ten inverted hyperbolic paraboloids and thin columns that resembled upside-down umbrellas in the central court.
An unpublished finding aid with detailed contents is available in the Manuscripts Division.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the University of Minnesota Libraries. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.
The following section contains a detailed list of the materials in the collection.
Enclosed shopping mall
proj. 59-11; 37th Ave NE and Silver Lake Road
St. Anthony Village, MN
Willard Thorsen
blueline