The Mayor’s Great City Design Teams through participation in community design workshops (charrettes) and case studies, education of the design process and an inventory of each site, all work to educate the community on the principles of livable communities and build better connections between the signature buildings that have recently put Minneapolis on the design map.
To get involved or for more information contact Raymond Dehn at raymond.dehn@esgarch.com
Washington Boulevard is the site of the first charrette and continuing design discussion. Share your thoughts, please.
19 comments:
So basically you are looking to reconstruct what was destroyed during the late 50s during one of Minneapolis' spasms of "urban renewal".
May I direct you to a site dedicated to what was... maybe it will give you ideas for your simulacra of a city street.
Washington Avenue's Past
I say add contemporary style to the soon to be Washington Blvd. Example would be Solar power and well designed bus stops, Solar power and well designed Street lights, heated sidewalks for friendly winter walking, Def add tree's but not the normal broadleaf you see on most minnesota streets, make them all cherry blossoms to give it it's own Identification, Also start pushing for Street Vendors IE: the Hot Dog stand, or the cotton candy stand those are good crowd pleasers and if govern right will not get out of hand. Get Local Schools and University involved with Some Art Work for the Blvd. And last a beautiful Water fountain something that would be in the Tourist book that would be a sight to be seen..
Thx again...
The rendering doesn't appear to incorporate bikes into the boulevard. Any "green" street should have striped bike lanes or even better, physically separated bike lanes in this case. Given the fact that the UofM is connected via Washington, and Mpls is becoming more of a biking city, bike lanes seem a prerequisite for any redesign of Washington Avenue.
Otherwise, nice work on an exciting project!
I love the vision. However, I am concerned about the implementation. Since the mayor bagan talking about the grand Washington Boulevard, at least two new sex industry shops have opened, to complement the others already on Washington Avenue. How does the city plan on getting rid of these?
Well, this is long overdue.
Speaking of bike lanes, look to some of the thoroughfares in China on how to incorporate traffic separated bike lanes. To avoid bikes mixing with traffic, they are given their own lanes (sometimes one or two wide--but China has a lot of bikers) and the newer roads have these lanes separated by planters (a la the planters every other block on 3rd Street). The lanes in China, however, flow right into intersections as regular traffic lanes do.
Cool link rania. This has potential, and bike lanes are a must.
Don't change Washington Ave. to "Washington Blvd." That's just fake, pretentious crap. Changing the name doesn't change anything, except the state of annoyance. And doesn't "Avenue" sound more French than "Boulevard" anyway? Isn't that the whole point of this? Let's just go with Rue and be done with it.
> Since the mayor bagan talking about the grand Washington Boulevard, at least two new sex industry shops have opened, to complement the others already on Washington Avenue. How does the city plan on getting rid of these?
These are all part of the diversity of Minneapolis and, as part of Washington Ave, help give the street the little character it currently has. What does tracey want, a Disneyfied strip with nothing but "family friendly" entertainment? That's what the Mall of America is for...
Can we see more concepts? How about some larger versions of what appeared in the Star Tribune?
I agree that the sex shops are a part of the character of Washington Avenue. Besides, if this vision of the street is brought to fruition, it's likely that other businesses would replace at least some of them, considering the limited clientele of those establishments.
I think this is a marvelous plan and Washington Ave is the place for this initiative - it has so much going for it with the great variety of attractions and amenities all along the length of the avenue. The concept drawings are wonderful.
I have to say though that I see one big flaw in the preliminary plans - the Eastern Gateway belongs at 7-Corners. The Gateway is currently shown in the concept drawings to be right out in front of Bobby and Steve's already monolithic filling station at 35W. 7-Corners is the natural Eastern end to Washington Avenue before the U of M campus and the Mississippi river. Why leave 7-Corners out of all this? There is a lot of great stuff happening on 7-Corners with far more potential as well. We have some beautiful old buildings (Yes, I live on 7-Corners and I own one of them.) theaters, restaurants, a fine hotel, and there is great history here also. Washington Boulevard meets Snoose Boulevard! There are many other reasons to include this one remaining block of Washington Avenue but here is a big one; the West Bank Station of the Central Corridor LRT will be at Cedar Ave., just 150 feet south of 7-Corners, and these two transportation arteries should be joined - visually and physically at 7-Corners. 7-Corners is an exciting place that would make a natural and vibrant end-piece to the grand boulevard that is planned for Washington Avenue.
I wrote to Mr. Raymond Dehn, following the instructions on the Web site, to be put on your mailing list. But nobody wrote back. Maybe your reply went into my spam bucket?
Why must I set a Google cookie to participate in city planning?
Third comment. Why do we need a park? We have Cancer Survivors Park and Gateway Park within blocks of each other. What I could use is a place to drink, smoke, and have a meal. But alas there is no place to eat within walking distance down Hennepin from the Mississippi. (Unless you go to the Warehouse District, wait for Whole Foods, or eat standing up in The Churchill Market, or can get by with soup from Dunn Brothers.)
Sincerely,
Susan Lesch
Just to record my experience. The notice on http://www.thenewwashingtonblvd.com/ (domain registrant: City of Minneapolis, not AIA Minnesota as the site says) says "To get involved or find out more, please contact Raymond Dehn, Assoc. AIA, ESG Architects at raymond.dehn@esgarch.com."
1 July 2007 - sent request to be involved to R.Dehn
14 July - resent request to be involved to R.Dehn
14 July - posted thrice to this blog
14-16 July - uploaded my first thoughts to
http://www.flickr.com/photos/montrose/collections/72157600836487822/
17 July - called the mayor's office (received same-day reply and some information, thank you)
17 July - David Graham (ESG) sent me a thank you (no other information), R.Dehn (ESG) said he'd try to get back to me but I have not found any substantive reply from ESG
20 July - sent note to Graham, Dehn, David Frank, City asking them to take down the request for contact on thenewwashingtonblvd.com because it sets the wrong expectations. I guess Elness Swenson Graham (ESG) and Rozeboom Miller (RMA) architects and the firms Schafer Richardson and Bonestroo are working solo. Disappointing and evidently a waste of time. Corrections welcome.
Sincerely
Susan Lesch
I would like to add some clarification to several recent posting on the thenewwashingtonblvd. The Vision was a combined effort of several design professionals and developers working with the Mayor’s office and city departments to look at the possibilities of what could transpire as new development continues along Washington Avenue. These efforts from the professional community have been voluntary and are intended to publicly put forth what can be put in place to transform a more industrial/warehouse thoroughfare of the city into a vibrant, active Boulevard. The final Vision was publicly presented on June 12th and is meant to be a guiding vision for future development along the avenue. Currently an implementation group, also volunteer-based, is in the process of being formed and will look at ways to make the vision real. We all understand that market forces, policy and outside factors will influence what ultimately will be built along the avenue. We appreciate all of the comments posted to the blog and will take them into consideration. And for those who want to be more involved I will be contacting you shortly to determine the best way for you to be engaged. Thank you and keep posting your ideas,
Ray
Too bad this can't be more of a reality. Just read about it in the November Metro mag. Would be incredible if it ever gets off the ground.
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