The now iconic Maple Grove Town Green is an architecture of placemaking through its formal, spatial, and material attributes that invoke Maple Grove’s namesake, define a vibrant public realm, and establish a cultural center amidst an expanse of new-urbanist development.

Before its rapid growth as a residential community and commercial destination in the northwest metro, Maple Grove was notable for a gravel pit mining industry that served construction in the Twin Cities for decades. Anticipating changing land use patterns, the city developed a Gravel Mining Area Plan to help shape the mix of residential, office and retail, ongoing industrial use, and public spaces for the 2,000-acre site. Yet, the rapid and variable development was nonetheless leading to a suburban city without a downtown or central community gathering place.

In 2008 the city called for an open-air band shell for music, dance, and theater events. The project program and its unique site between the shore of West Arbor Lake and the suburb’s newly emergent Main Street, called for an architecture that spoke to civic identity and celebration.

In designing the canopy structures, inspiration was drawn from the fluid, wing-like form of the maple seed pod—the floating, spinning form beloved by children—and a reminder of the power and local need for ecological regeneration. The program was organized on the site as a collection of canopy structures, with the performance band shell anchoring three pavilions for support programs of stage left, stage right, concessions, toilets, and a conference space.

The central band shell features a cantilevered, white-concrete canopy that gently arcs toward the sky in an acoustically formed shape. The cast-in-place concrete buildings are richly colored and textured through a range of techniques. Beneath each canopy, rusticated, earthen, gravel-infused concrete structures recall the stone extraction that exposed the regional aquifer now visible as ponds that frame the site.