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An internationally-renowned city planner who led the revitalization of St. Paul's Lowertown neighborhood has died. Weiming Lu was 92 years old. He worked around the world, but drew particular attention for reenvisioning historic buildings in Minnesota’s capital city.

Born in Shanghai, China in 1930, Weiming Lu followed in the footsteps of his father — himself an architect and city planner. According to a 

 in the University of Minnesota’s Alumni magazine, the family fled to Taiwan in 1949 amid the Communist revolution.

After studying civil engineering, Lu moved to the United States to pursue his master’s degree. He chose the UMN on the advice of his father’s friend. Lu globe-trotted early in his career, studying post war rebuilding in Europe and teaching at Tokyo University.

Tom Fisher, director of the UMN’s Design Center, said Lu started his career in the wake of the midcentury urban renewal movement that bulldozed countless historic buildings and neighborhoods. Fisher says Lu brought a new philosophy to the profession.

“He was at the forefront of the change that happened in planning away from an auto-centric, highway-oriented way of planning to rediscovering historic downtowns, rediscovering the value of preservation.”

Lu spent a dozen years in the city of Minneapolis’ planning department. That’s where he helped transform the downtown stretch of Nicollet Avenue into Nicollet Mall, and developed the Loring Greenway and skyway system.

Lu’s work here caught the attention of officials at the planning department in Dallas. His key accomplishment there was getting National Historic Landmark status for the Texas School Book Depository. The building from which President Kennedy was assassinated is now preserved as government office space and a museum.

But Lu would take on the biggest challenge of his career when he returned to Minnesota. Former St. Paul Mayor George Latimer hired him in 1979 to lead the revitalization of Lowertown — a once bustling railroad and warehouse hub.

Latimer says Lu saw value in the neighborhood’s historic buildings, and an opportunity to create a built environment on a human scale.

“He had the highest sophistication an architect could have, a love for historic preservation, and a detailed ability to implement those ideas.”

But Latimer says none of that would have mattered but for Lu’s soft-spoken tenacity and ability to see projects through to completion.

Lu leveraged a $10 million McKnight Foundation grant and worked with the Lowertown Redevelopment Corporation for a quarter century to overhaul the 16-block area that includes Union Depot, the St. Paul Farmers’ Market and Mears Park.

In 2006, when the Corporation disbanded, Lu reflected on his work in an interview with MPR News. While historic preservation was key in Lowertown, Lu said including new construction was important too.

“I happen to come from an old country, and I respect tradition as well, and I try to continue to mix new and old, and to provide a sense of continuity and always welcome changes as well.”

Tom Fisher at the UMN says this blend of old and new that Lu put into the design guidelines for Lowertown is readily visible in Cray Plaza — formerly known as Galtier Plaza. Built in the mid 1980s, the project fit two new apartment towers amid much smaller converted warehouse buildings.

“The tower isn’t right on the street. It’s back in the middle of the block. So even though it’s quite tall, you tend to see it as if it’s off in the distance. So with a few clever moves like that, he inserted a really big building into that area in a way that was unobtrusive.”

Fisher says that design is a reflection of Weiming Lu’s personality, someone whom you may not have noticed while strolling through Mears park, but step back, and you’ll definitely see him in the skyline.

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Weiming Lu, 92, worked around the world, but drew particular attention for revisioning historic buildings in Minnesota’s capital city.

Urban planner behind the revitalization of Lowertown, Weiming Lu dies

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