urbanMSP

Last May Rybak said "the city had a strategy to zone this area to prevent much development because they wanted it all focused over in the core downtown." That characterization is similar to what Ted Mondale and others have said. Apparently now it's been rezoned, and I think we can be confi...

To be clear, Wilf has just a sliver of land downtown. He bought 1.9 acres north of the dome in 2007 and wisely refrained from developing it pending the resolution of the stadium issue. Now that land will be part of the grounds of the new facility. He has no interest whatsoever in reserving parking l...

MSFA Chair Michele Kelm-Helgen, who undoubtedly has seen the HKS designs, says "the stadium will include plenty of windows and transparent fabrics." So I think we can be confident that, even with no retractable roof, the atmosphere should at least be more airy and light-filled than other d...

The U of M hosts 23 dome games in February and March. The MIAC plays 57 and the NSIC plays 67. That's 147 baseball games in just two winter months. At the new stadium, the sport that gets played by far the most will be baseball.

The baseball field dimensions dispute is settled. Right field will be 300 feet deep with a 26-foot temporary outfield wall. For comparison, left field in Fenway is 310 feet deep with a 37-foot wall. Other details here:

http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikin ... 96711.html

This is probably the most complete recap:

http://lakeminnetonka.patch.com/article ... f-13419145

This was just approved by the Excelsior City Council. It's gonna happen.

This morning Bagley said "90 days". I assume he meant 90 days from today. But maybe that's his worst case scenario.

It's notable that Mortenson built Target Field ahead of schedule and under budget. Bagley and Kelm-Helgen touted Mortenson's relationships with local contractors as big factors in keeping costs down and deadlines met. This bodes well for those of us hoping for maximum bang for our buck. Also, Bagley...

This story says drawings will be released in March or April. Also, a decision on a retractable feature hasn't even been made yet. So I'm guessing they're still making fairly major revisions to whatever designs exist.

http://finance-commerce.com/2013/02/vik ... ed-friday/

So there's a blueprint in this story of the event level - identified as an HKS image dated Jan.10, 2013. It might be the very first public image of the new stadium. It's hard to make out but it looks like 3,646 seats will retract to allow for baseball. http://www.kare11.com/news/article/1008401/391/...

It's a good bet that all surface parking in the area from 5th to 11th Av, and from 3rd to 6th St will be gone by 2016.

Here's a link to the New Zealand stadium:

http://www.forsythbarrstadium.co.nz/stadium

Groundbreaking set for October 2013:

http://www.startribune.com/politics/sta ... ml?refer=y

There's an encouraging consensus forming among stadium planning principals. They really want to integrate the facility with the neighborhood and they recognize how critical it is to attract development. Mistakes made with the Metrodome seem unlikely to be made again: http://www.startribune.com/opini...

I'm a fan of Dayton, but I'm not sure he's on solid footing here. Kevin Seifert has an interesting take:

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcnorth/post/_ ... roved-psls

The only kind of fraud a photo ID will prevent is voter impersonation fraud - which is virtually nonexistent. Noone in their right mind would risk a multi-thousand dollar fine and possible jail time so they can pose as someone else at the polls and cast a single vote. Voter ID laws are a solution wi...

More HKS design art here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/110143835/HKS ... esentation

Starting on page 19.

More renderings of rejected designs:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/displa ... m-designs/

This evening might be the only chance for interested people in Minneapolis to voice their stadium-related concerns directly to the architect. The other open houses will be outstate or in the burbs.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/displa ... pen-house/