Photo by John Haynes
Architect James Garrett Jr. stands in the skate park
Architect James Garrett Jr. stands in the skate park at Juxtaposition Arts, in Minneapolis, one of the community spaces his firm is redesigning.
For St. Paul architect James Garrett Jr., the violent week of May 25 in the Twin Cities was particularly painful. He knew George Floyd personally. And on a professional level, Garrett was working on two community arts projects—an expanded campus for Juxtaposition Arts, in north Minneapolis and a new headquarters for Springboard for the Arts, in St. Paul—that were damaged in the rioting aftermath.
“It hit close to home,” Garrett says.
4RM+ULA, the now eight-person firm the architect founded in 2002 with his lifelong friend Erick Goodlow, is committed to urban projects that engage the community and integrate art with architecture. The name—short for “Form plus urban landscape articulation”—speaks to the importance of creating dynamic spaces for underrepresented communities. In 2007, architect Nathan Johnson joined, and the design of art-rich stations along St. Paul’s Green Line light rail kicked off the firm’s growth. The firm has a New York office and work in the Dominican Republic, where Garrett’s wife, Paola Sánchez-Garrett, is a registered architect.
Garrett’s background as one of Minnesota’s few Black architects (0.6 percent of Minnesota architects are Black) gives him a unique perspective on today’s issues.
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Photos by Morgan Sheff
The Great River Landing housing development in the North Loop
The Great River Landing housing development in the North Loop opened earlier this year.
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the Rondo Commemorative Plaza in St. Paul
The Rondo Commemorative Plaza in St. Paul was completed in 2018 and includes an exhibit wall of the neighborhood’s history.
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the Rondo Commemorative Plaza in St. Paul
The Rondo Commemorative Plaza.
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the Rondo Commemorative Plaza in St. Paul
The Rondo Commemorative Plaza.
Q: Tell us about your background.
A: I’m a fifth generation St. Paulite, traditionally from the Rondo community. (Rondo was the Black neighborhood eviscerated by the construction of I-94 in the mid-1950s.) My great-great-grandmother was the first Black homeowner in St. Paul. My grandfather was the first Black deputy police chief in St. Paul.
Q: How did you become an architect?
A: I feel like architecture chose me. I’d play with blocks, LEGOs. Also, I was attracted to the city. I drew the buildings of Minneapolis and St. Paul when I was 12. My family saw that and took a family trip to Chicago, which fueled my obsession.
Q: Was it harder because you were Black?
A: Oh, yes, 1,000 percent. There were roadblocks at every level. I tried to take architecture courses in high school, but they said I had to take mechanical drafting instead. I attended one of the most competitive schools in the country (the College of Environmental Design at Berkeley), but I started with a deficit. I went on to graduate school at Parsons School of Design and then moved back to start my own practice.
Q: You’ve mentioned that architect Cap Wigington, who worked in St. Paul’s municipal architecture office from 1915 to 1947, had an influence on you.
A: Cap was my grandfather’s godfather. He’s a big reason I came back to St. Paul. He designed my elementary school, Chelsea Heights; my mom’s high school; and my grandparents’ home, which I loved.
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Renderings courtesy 4RM+ULA
Rendering of the Springboard for the Arts, in St. Paul
Renderings for two of the community arts buildings 4RM+ULA is working on: Springboard for the Arts, in St. Paul.
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Rendering of the Juxtaposition Arts, in Minneapolis
The Juxtaposition Arts building, in Minneapolis.
Q: Tell us about a couple of your seminal projects.
A: Rondo Plaza, a community space that memorializes the Rondo neighborhood, is very close to our hearts. My partner Nathan’s grandfather and mine were neighbors there. The question was how to do a space that is both deferential and reverential but also could live in the present—and look forward. The 33-foot-tall Rondo Beacon says the community is still here. From a mound you can see the freeway but also look the other way at a stage that hosts poetry readings, concerts, classes, chess clubs. History panels show the names and addresses of the homeowners. A map etched on the ground traces the path of the freeway through the neighborhood. It’s really powerful.
Great River Landing in Minneapolis’s North Loop provides housing for 72 men rebuilding their lives after being incarcerated. We aligned with the mission. We centered artists in the project. Parallel to the design process, Roger Cummings of Juxtaposition Arts reached out to the men. They all talked about how they wanted to reconnect with their kids. So we created a family suite and extra space for a children’s play area outside. We started shaping the building in ways that were unexpected.
For Springboard for the Arts, we’re adapting an old car dealership and garage in St. Paul’s Frogtown. In addition to the offices on the first floor, we’ve added a mezzanine for arts programs and a rooftop patio with a solar panel trellis and a beautiful view of the State Capitol. A small park space offers rain gardens and paths for biking and walking. Currently there’s really no green space on the Green Line light rail east of Fairview Avenue.
Photo by Brandon Stengel
Green Line light rail station
4RM+ULA collaborated on the designs for 18 stations along the Green Line light rail.
Q: You knew George Floyd. And both the Juxtaposition and the Springboard projects were damaged in the riots. Tell us about your reactions.
A: It’s been excruciatingly painful. I’ve been racially profiled and harassed hundreds of times. I don’t want my two young boys [Nikola, 4, and James, 7] to be subjected to what I have been. I am 100 percent in support of whatever birthing pains it takes to end up in a better place. The line is drawn at the random vandalism. People who aren’t part of the community are trying to use this period of pain and grief to cause unrelated damage and fear and chaos. That is the most tragic part of this.
At Springboard, our fire suppression system worked. I went there the next morning and cleaned up, then went to Juxta, which had been entered and vandalized that evening. That’s not coming from the community.
These are organizations serving their communities!
Q: Why does architecture matter?
A: Architecture doesn’t solve societal problems. But it can create those places and spaces that can facilitate those conversations. That’s what I talk about when I teach at the master’s program at the U and give talks around the country.
Q: What needs to happen now?
A: There’s something fundamentally wrong when you see the obvious and apparent imbalances and inequities.
We need to realize that even in our most nostalgic moments about the world that was (pre-COVID, pre–George Floyd, pre–civil uprising), our communities of color were suffering greatly from some of the worst disparities in the nation, in health outcomes, education, et al. We have no desire to “go back” to that place but resolve to move forward into a more just and equitable future.
