Andy Sturdevant
seven clock illustrations
Jack Nelson’s Sculpture Clock
S. 11th St. and Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis
illustration of clock
Created in the late 1960s by New York sculptor Jack Nelson for Lawrence Halprin’s Nicollet Mall design, this playful kinetic sculpture was a local landmark for years, featuring prominently in the background of WCCO weather reports. After it had been inoperable for years, a team of art conservators was able to locate Nelson’s original plans and blueprints from his widow, and they restored the clock in 2017. It stands outside Orchestra Hall, fully functional once again.
Spruce Tree Centre
1600 University Ave. W., St. Paul
illustration of a clock
This mighty green real-life Minecraft behemoth is alternately the pride and/or shame of the Midway. Fittingly for an intersection long reputed to be the busiest in the state, Snelling and University, the clock tower may be one of the most gazed upon in town.
Freeway Ford
9700 Lyndale Ave. S., Bloomington
Illustration a Freeway Ford's clock
A longtime beacon to I-35W motorists stuck in traffic, this digital clock served for many years as the logo of Freeway Ford and, by proxy, as a symbol of the postwar Information Age suburban commuter lifestyle.
Church of Saint Agnes
535 Thomas Ave. W., St. Paul
illustration of Church of Saint Agnes clock
St. Paul writer Bill Lindeke has likened the faces of the Roman-numeraled clocks on the Church of Saint Agnes’s Zwiebelturm to an Indiglo watch. The patinaed green copper faces do have that phosphorescent quality, particularly at night, when they’re illuminated.
Carillon
North Hennepin Community College, Brooklyn Park
Illustration of clock tower
Emblazoned with names of the potato varieties that were once the pride of Brooklyn Park’s early 20th-century farmers, this 60-foot-high bronze-and-steel bell tower keeps time with chimes on the quarter hour. The Twin Cities’ colleges have some fine timepieces, but none other features a golden potato on the top.
Commercial Clock
990 Payne Ave., St. Paul
Illustration of a commercial clock
In the past century, the brick building at 990 Payne Avenue has been home to pharmacies, home furnishing warehouses, hardware stores, and most recently, the Plaza del Sol. The clock and thermometer hanging on the front, at the corner of Payne and Jenks, is one of the best examples you’ll find in town of the sort of commercial clocks that once dotted the urban landscape.
Bloomington Equatorial Sundial
Bloomington Civic Plaza, 1800 W. Old Shakopee Rd., Bloomington
Illustration of a sundial
Built by Erickson Monuments of Colorado, the granite sundial sitting atop the city reservoir gives you the time of day on its face in the spring and summer and on the reverse during the colder, darker months, all with helpful charts and graphics hewn in stone.
