As the son of a Chinese architect, Weiming Lu was raised to appreciate both the cultural continuity of classical Chinese structures and the avant-garde, nature-inspired designs of famed Wisconsin architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
Lu, who spent most of his adult life in the U.S., brought the two seemingly incongruous styles to bear on his own architecture and artistic calligraphy, including the internationally-acclaimed redesign of St. Paul’s Lowertown neighborhood into a greener, more village-style layout.
As an urban planner, his goals included making the Twin Cities more people-oriented and less dominated by cars, according to a 2019 profile in the Minnesota Alumni magazine. His efforts, which set the tone for urban renewal efforts across the U.S. and beyond, also set the stage for the reopening of a fully reconstructed Mears Park in 1992, including a new man-made stream and performance bandshell.
Prior to that, he was heavily involved in planning the Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis, the Interstate 35W highway and the Minneapolis skyway system.
Lu, recently of Golden Valley, died Tuesday, according to his wife Caroline. He was 92. He is also survived by his son Kevin Lu.
‘HE WAS A POWERHOUSE’
On a Facebook page dedicated to the Lowertown Arts District, neighborhood residents this week recalled him as a creative giant whose gentle demeanor could be powerfully persuasive.
“He was a powerhouse,” said Bill Hanley, a former executive vice president of Twin Cities Public Television, or TPT, in an email. “He was the guy who talked TPT into moving to Lowertown in 1989. … He was just that pivotal.”
Lu was born in Shanghai, China on March 20, 1930. Political unrest caused his family to flee to Taiwan in 1949, according to the Minnesota Historical Society. He earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Cheng-Kung University, fulfilled a military obligation for the Chinese government and then emigrated to the United States, where he obtained a master’s degree in structural engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1954.
He later obtained a degree in regional planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After returning to the Twin Cities for a planning job with the city of Minneapolis, he helped develop the first plan for the Metropolitan Planning Commission and successfully pursued legislation that allowed cities to use tax increment financing, a type of tax incentive, to bolster new real estate development.
LOWERTOWN PROJECT
After spending much of the 1970s as a planner in Dallas, Lu was hired by then-St. Paul Mayor George Latimer in 1979 as the city’s deputy director for urban design. Lu worked alongside the Lowertown Redevelopment Corporation to revitalize the city’s struggling 16-block warehouse district, and two years later became the corporation’s executive director.
His efforts encouraged the preservation of the old buildings throughout the warehouse district, while reinventing them for residential uses and the arts and better connecting them to the Mississippi River. Lowertown also became linked to the city’s new downtown-area district heating system, which eventually added cooling, as well.
John Mannillo, who worked with Lu at the Lowertown Redevelopment Corporation, said his efforts helped shape Mears Park, the Union Depot, the North Quadrant, the St. Paul Farmers’ Market and the St. Paul Saints ballpark. More recently he was active in the Lower Phalen Creek project.
“Weiming was completely committed to his work,” Mannillo said. “He was always independent, never allowed politics to change his plans.”
Lu’s book, “The Tao of Urban Rejuvenation: Building a Livable Creative Urban Village,” was translated into Chinese, and he traveled the world presenting at conferences.
PUBLIC SERVICE
Throughout his career, his public service included service on multiple boards, including an effort centered on the reconstruction of South Central Los Angeles after “not guilty” verdicts in the 1992 Rodney King police brutality case led to widespread rioting. He was heavily involved in the Chinese-American community, including sister-city efforts between St. Paul and Changsha, China, as well as a committee that helped plan the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Lu served as a planning advisor to the mayors of Beijing and Taipei, and his artistic calligraphy has been featured in multiple art galleries.
“The Chinese calligraphy has 3,000 years of history,” said Lu, in an interview with Twin Cities Public Television. “It’s a wonderful heritage, but sometimes too confined, not willing to try new things. I guess I have the luxury of trying to do it in America. No one can stop me.”
Caroline Lu said services will be handled at a later date.
