In 1981, a southeast Minneapolis neighborhood group took action against the then-proposed Riverplace development plan, considering the concept overscaled fortheir neighborhood and not responsive to the architectural character of the Saint Anthony Falls Historic District. Robert Roscoe, then with Design Collective Architects, and partner Peter Kramer prepared an alternative study that down-scaled commercial buildings facing Main Street, set highrise towers toward the rear of the site, designed open spaces that included walkway connections to the river, and created an architecture appropriate to the area.
Although the neighborhood group’s alternative plan was not adopted by Minneapolis city officials, the developer revised the project that included many of the alternative study concepts.