Liebenberg and Kaplan
Architect Jacob "Jack" Liebenberg (born July 4, 1893),[1] a Milwaukee native of German Jewish descent, arrived in Minneapolis in 1912 to work on construction of the Leamington Hotel.
[1] One of his students was Seeman Kaplan (born June 5, 1894),[4] a son of Russian Jewish immigrants, who had worked as a draftsman and served as an officer in the Engineer Corps during World War I.
In its early years, L&K was met with anti-Semitism, which was well-entrenched in the Minneapolis business community at the time,[5][4] but in 1923 the firm was commissioned to design the remodel of the Arion Theater, one of the city's oldest movie houses.
One hundred years after its opening, the Duluth Economic Development Association purchased the NorShor with the intent to return it to life as a vibrant cultural center—serving the needs of the arts, dance, theatre and musical organizations from across the region.
The Lyric Theater (1912; 1920s remodel, Virginia, Minnesota), originally built for vaudeville acts and silent movies and redesigned in the 1920s by Jack Liebenberg, is currently being redeveloped into a performing arts center.
Abandoning the Art Deco design of the prewar era, the firm created the Riverview as a "proper midcentury brick box set above a granite-clad base, with an angled corner entry pavilion ... solid, though a bit low-key compared to many of its earlier theaters".
[21]The architects embraced several popular Midcentury Modern design features such as geometric forms, tilted windows, a striking brick-and-glass tower, and large-scale signage.
The StarTribune reported that the Terrace was deemed eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004 but the designation lapsed after a ten-year period.
In 2015, Denis Gardner, the National Register historian for the Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office, said the theater was "one of the most distinctive buildings in Robbinsdale" and that it was the culmination of L&K's "considerable theater-design experience and talents".
[28] In spite of the 1919 Minnesota statute prohibiting discrimination in the sale of housing on religious grounds, the Minneapolis area was openly anti-Semitic throughout the first half of the twentieth century.
[30] The three brick homes in French Provincial Revival style are set on large lots with views of Wirth Park, and are among the twelve L&K-designed residences in the historically-significant Homewood subdivision, an enclave of middle- and upper-middle-class Jewish settlement during a period of intense anti-Semitism.
[31] Following the success of the Terrace Theatre, Dr. Harvey Nelson called on L&K to design his family residence in the Tyrol Hills section of Golden Valley in 1952.
The large home, which stands on a high-banked lot, exemplifies the classic Midcentury Modern raised ranch or split entry style.
It features ample windows, dramatic spaces, and high-quality materials similar to those of the Terrace: brick, redwood, birch, oak, and slate.
Thanks to Liebenberg's experience in commercial architecture, the home was not only well designed but well built with heavy-duty structural elements; it remains solidly intact and unchanged.
[4] In 1955 then-Senator Hubert H. Humphrey commissioned the firm to design a family cottage in Waverly, Minnesota, a "retreat from the stress and pace of Washington".
The home now serves as a chemical dependency treatment center, and its original living room is still intact, with its central fireplace and large, south-facing picture window overlooking Lake Waverly.
"[4] L&K's architectural success brought to life thousands of buildings in the Twin Cities and the Upper Midwest, either through original design or expansion/remodeling projects based on contemporary tastes and standards.
In downtown Minneapolis, their lavish renovations of the Academy, World, and Gopher theaters were destroyed as a result of urban renewal,[33] but the firm's 1929 Art Deco makeover of the State survives, restored in 1991 with city funding and now part of the Hennepin Theatre Trust.
The new owners plan to renovate and restore its original Spanish Revival style while converting the 6,000-square-foot space into a live music and entertainment space—the only one in the Uptown commercial district..[36] In addition to Temple Israel (which has remained in continuous use by its congregation since its opening in 1928)[37] and Adath Jeshurun ("considered one of the finest examples of synagogue architecture in the Northwest";[38] now First Universalist Church), several L&K-designed houses of worship still stand in the Twin Cities.
[42] Larger institutions that remain in their original L&K-designed buildings include the KSTP-TV headquarters in St. Paul (1948) as well as the Hennepin County Medical Center in downtown Minneapolis (1976).
[33] Seeman Kaplan remained with the firm until his death in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on November 26, 1963; he was buried in the Minneapolis Jewish Cemetery in Richfield, Minnesota.
As Lileks noted of the firm and the monolithic Hennepin County Medical Center, "it's possible to be born in a Liebenberg building and die in one—and enjoy some time in between watching stories in the beautiful rooms they made".
