Riverfront Reboot

                                             The following images are from Archpaper.com.

I have just heard from Archpaper.com that a bi-coastal team will redesign the Minneapolis waterfront.  The waterfront is physically and psychologically seperated from the lives of the people of Minneapolis because of highways, railways, a commercial port, and abandoned industrial sites.  It is all going to change because of the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board.  They gave the 5.5 mile project to landscape architects Tom Leader Studio and Boston-based Kennedy & Violich Architects. 

Archpaper said, "Among the team's ideas: creating artificial wetlands at key run-off points to filter and remediate stormwater, and constructing floating islands built on rafts of recycled water bottles with the excavated fill, which would serve as wildlife refuges."  The project will also aim to maintain industries and new green industries and to increase public access in and around industry sites.  The waterfront project will serve for not only park uses, but industrial uses too. 

With new resources and technology, the design team expects to refine their plan, and focus on specifics over the next four to six months.  If I ever get a chance to go to Minneapolis I would go see the new waterfront as soon as I could.  The design looks new and refreshing, and I bet the residents in the city will love their new waterfront.  For a full image gallery of the new Minneapolis waterfront design, click here.