Thomas Lowry founded the original Minneapolis and St. Paul streetcar lines and gave generously to the city's parks. His statue has stood near Hennepin Avenue since 1915. It first stood in Virginia Triangle, where Hennepin, Lyndale and Groveland meet. In 1967 the state highway department took that land for Interstate 94, and the Park Board moved the memorial a few blocks south to Smith Triangle Park, on the highway department's dime. The sculptor was Karl Bitter, and the carved monument still carries the line he set beneath it:
"Be this community strong and enduring—it will do homage to the men who guided its youth"
Nearly sixty years after that move, the statue is again waiting on a decision about its future. So are two other well-known rooms along Lowry Hill's stretch of Hennepin. The difference is that the statue is the only one of the three with dates attached.
The Street Finished First
The construction that dominated the last two summers is over. The City of Minneapolis says Phase 1 of the Hennepin Avenue South rebuild, Lake Street to 26th Street, was finished in 2024. Phase 2, 26th Street to Douglas Avenue, was substantially finished in 2025. The avenue is open to two-way traffic, bikes and pedestrians, and sewer lining wrapped up in fall 2025. Metro Transit's METRO E Line opened on December 6, 2025, replacing Route 6, with planned service every 10 to 15 minutes from 4:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. Its nearest stops for Lowry Hill are Hennepin & Franklin and Hennepin & 25th Street. The line turns one year old a month from now.
Three of the best-known spaces along the rebuilt street are still waiting on their next use. Each of them answers to a different decision-maker, and each one is on its own clock.
| Space | Most recent use | Who decides what's next | Published timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas Lowry Memorial, Smith Triangle Park, 2300 Hennepin Ave. S. | Historic landmark, with skaters using the plaza | Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board | Concept approval fall 2026, construction spring through fall 2027 |
| Former The Lowry, 2112 Hennepin Ave. S. | The Lowry, operated by Blue Plate Restaurant Co., closed April 26, 2026 | Building owner and a future tenant | No public timeline |
| Walker Art Center restaurant, 725 Vineland Place | Cardamom, ended spring 2026 | The Walker and a future restaurant partner | No public timeline |
The Statue Has the Only Calendar
Smith Triangle sits on Lowry Hill's southern edge, where Hennepin Avenue, Emerson Avenue South and West 24th Street come together. It is a 0.26-acre park with Temple Israel across the street to the west. The memorial has weathered and taken damage over the years. The Park Board's project budget is $232,000 from its NPP20 neighborhood parks funding, and restoring the sculpture comes first. Whatever money is left goes to the rest of the park.
The complication is that the people who use the triangle most are the ones the restoration has to work around. The Park Board says skateboarders have "venerated and used the park for years." It also lists protecting the sculpture from skateboards as one of the site challenges the project has to solve. According to the East Isles Neighborhood Association's notes from the February meeting where three concepts were presented, Paul Forsline of City of Skate described the goal as "a great public plaza that's also skateable." He added that skaters "do cherish the statue to a degree." These were the three concept boards:
- A plaza with outdoor ping-pong tables
- A plaza with a pop-up skatepark
- A smaller plaza with a pop-up skatepark and public seating in the lawn
Hill & Lake Press reported in June that neighbors wanted the statue restored, better lighting, intentional landscaping, a place to skate and local art. Those are requests, and the Board has not adopted any of them as a final plan yet.
According to the Park Board's project page, the Board of Commissioners approves the concept in fall 2026. Construction documents follow over the winter, the project goes out for bids in winter 2027, and construction runs from spring–summer 2027 to fall 2027. As of late October the page showed no updates and no meetings scheduled, so the fall approval date is still a target. Even so, it is the only one of the three spaces where a neighbor can look up when the work is supposed to start and finish.
2112 Hennepin Is Built Out and Waiting
The Lowry served its last day at 2112 Hennepin on April 26, 2026, after 15 years. The Star Tribune reported that Blue Plate Restaurant Co. listed "prolonged and disruptive Hennepin Avenue construction" among several reasons for closing. The restaurant that carried the neighborhood's name closed in spring 2026, months after the City called the rebuild outside its door substantially complete.
In early May the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reported that the 4,900-square-foot building was available for lease and fully built out with restaurant infrastructure. That matters because a new restaurant would not have to build a kitchen from nothing.
Activity nearby has been landing a little farther south. The Star Tribune's October 5 restaurant roundup lists OG ZaZa, which opened September 7 at 1440 W. Lake St. in the former Mesa Pizza space and stays open until 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The same roundup lists Harold's Chicken at 1430 Lagoon Ave. and Arizona Taco Co. at 3001 Hennepin Ave., which opened in July. All three are in Uptown, not on the Lowry Hill blocks north of 24th Street.
The Walker Wants a Dining Room It Doesn't Run
The Walker's restaurant space is waiting for a different reason. The museum does not operate a restaurant itself. It partners with an outside operator, and it has a firm idea of what that operator should be. In May the Walker announced it was ending its relationship with Cardamom, run by DDP Restaurant Group inside the museum since 2021, after the restaurant moved to QR-code ordering. "While we do not oversee the restaurant in our museum, our vision has always been to have a full-service dining option within the Walker to complement the museum experience," Executive Director Mary Ceruti said in the Walker's announcement.
That standard goes back a long way. The Star Tribune traced it to 2005, when Wolfgang Puck 20.21 opened in the museum's new second-floor restaurant space. Gather by D'Amico & Partners came next. When the Walker moved its main entrance and added a ground-floor restaurant about a decade ago, Esker Grove opened there, followed by Cardamom in 2021. That makes four full-service operators in roughly twenty years, and the museum is now looking for a fifth that fits the same model.
In the meantime, the Walker's dining page lists a café with coffee, pastries, sandwiches, salads and other prepared food during gallery hours.
What the Walker Does Have This Month
The galleries are a different story. The Walker's first design triennial, Beyond Materialism, opened October 17 and runs through February 14, 2027, with work by more than 20 designers and collectives. Abbas Akhavan: Variations on a Garden opens November 12 and runs through April 18, 2027. It uses sculpture and installation to explore how people relate to nature, public and private space, and heritage conservation. That subject lines up closely with the questions now facing the Lowry memorial down the street.
Here are the dates on the Walker's November calendar:
- Saturday, November 7: Free First Saturday, Designing Together, starting at 10 a.m., and Leenalchi at 8 p.m.
- Thursday, November 12: Variations on a Garden opens.
- Saturday, November 21: Choreographers' Evening, curated by Ashwini Ramaswamy, at 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
- Friday, November 27, and Saturday, November 28: 2026 British Arrows Awards screenings.
Calendar listings can change, so check the Walker's calendar before you go. The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden next door is free and open daily from 6 a.m. to midnight, year-round. If you visit the Akhavan show after it opens, you can walk south along the new Hennepin sidewalks or take the E Line to see the statue at 24th Street before restoration starts next year.
If you live near Smith Triangle and want updates on the concept vote, the Park Board offers email updates for the project. If you're wondering how a finished Hennepin Avenue and the next tenants at 2112 Hennepin and the Walker could affect your block, Arbor Residential Group follows Lowry Hill closely, and we're happy to talk it through or put together an instant valuation of your home.
