The Commons - Downtown East Park

[amiller92]

So that thing about keeping the mature trees in the "parklet?" Not so much. They are gone.

[grant1simons2]

Errrr

[amiller92]

Errrr

Whoops! My bad. (I got confused now that there is now long a Strib building and was looking at the wrong block).

[Minneapolitan]

The Strib coverage with a video of renderings:
http://www.startribune.com/design-unvei ... 305257791/

"Lets take a look at thee...Next picture. " lmao. News people etiquette is hilarious

[sanchopanza]

I am surprised the renderings don't show cars driving on Portland.

[nfschauer]

They fenced off the triangular section adjacent to the light rail station. WIll this just be more park and green areas? Looks like it's a different construction company though

[Electricianguy]

I wish we were that lucky to get more park space. This space is being prepared to build the massive bridge for Vikings season ticket holders.

[HiawathaGuy]

They fenced off the triangular section adjacent to the light rail station. WIll this just be more park and green areas? Looks like it's a different construction company though

The space adjacent to the light rail is not part of the park - even though all the renderings showed it as such. They will make it open up to the Commons better - but they are very separate.

[FISHMANPET]

Just looked it up, LS Black has pulled building permits for a $9.6 million pedestrian bridge, so I guess it's happening, without any say from anybody:
http://apps.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/PIApp/ ... 2924210099

[HiawathaGuy]

Vikings, Target, Carlson, Xcel and more donate $3M to downtown park project
http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/b ... funds.html

Nice progress!

[acs]

Sorry to burst the happy bubble on this one, but..

http://www.startribune.com/fundraising- ... 365443331/

The pace of fundraising isn't enough to cover the full cost of the design, so the city is cutting the water plaza, the two buildings and the terraces. Even with cutting the cost in half to $10.8m, the project is still $4.6m short, not to mention operating costs.

[VacantLuxuries]

Actually, cutting the water feature is probably one of the best things to happen to this park in a while.

[Nathan]

I don't disagree. I think it's important for us to incorporate water features in our major parks, bit this seems full of future problems. I'd rather see a cool interactive water sculpture like Chicago has in millennium park.

Simple, creative, dynamic, cheap to maintain.

[acs]

Thinking about this more, we all knew that the park wasn't going to open with all the features this coming fall. Ryan had released renderings of basically two flat grass blocks with trees on the outside and it was going to take until 2018 and the superbowl to build it all. I don't know any of the main details (thanks strib) but could this vote be the city's acknowledgement of this timeline or is this really a setback?

[amiller92]

I keep thinking that one or both of Ryan or the Vikings are going to realize that they need to pony up to pay for this thing, but so far no.

[VacantLuxuries]

When so many of our best parks are built around natural water features, is it really important to build artificial ones that look ugly during the winter?

[Sacrelicio]

When so many of our best parks are built around natural water features, is it really important to build artificial ones that look ugly during the winter?

I'd argue that fountains and manmade water features almost give a message of "stay out" in the winter. I favor more trees and art.

[trigonalmayhem]

When so many of our best parks are built around natural water features, is it really important to build artificial ones that look ugly during the winter?

The park board does a good job of making sure most of our parks are ugly and inaccessible in the winter, so no worries there.

[trigonalmayhem]

I keep thinking that one or both of Ryan or the Vikings are going to realize that they need to pony up to pay for this thing, but so far no.

If it's not a jumbotron or ugly piece of public art the Vikings are not going to pay for a damn thing. They've pretty clearly proven they can continue to con governmental bodies into paying for them with the DTE station bridge.

[grant1simons2]

When so many of our best parks are built around natural water features, is it really important to build artificial ones that look ugly during the winter?

The park board does a good job of making sure most of our parks are ugly and inaccessible in the winter, so no worries there.

You're just so wrong.