Postwar Multifamily Housing Context

In 2025, MnDOT’s Cultural Resources Unit hired Hess Roise to prepare a statewide historic context for postwar multifamily housing as a part of MnDOT’s ongoing efforts to study a wider range of time periods and types of properties potentially affected by transportation projects.

In the postwar period, multifamily housing construction was driven by federal policy, private developers, and a surge in demand during the housing shortage after World War II. The context highlights the early postwar multifamily construction boom as well as the ongoing project of multifamily development throughout the state. The context is divided into chronological sections, each tied to major growth phases in multifamily construction from 1945 to the present. It outlines broad state and national trends and discusses how multifamily housing has evolved to meet the needs of urban, suburban, and small-town Minnesotans.

The context includes criteria for evaluation, establishing a framework for MnDOT’s Cultural Resource Unit and other historians to assess the potential National Register eligibility of this varied group of properties.