urbanMSP

I just want to say that having a stadium named "Farmers Field" and a team named "Lakers" makes no sense in LA.

There's a lot that doesn't make sense about LA.

MSFA will speak with the media tomorrow morning after their meeting.

http://www.msfa.com/content/RFP%20ARCHI ... AVAILt.pdf

those arches aren't going anywhere.

those arches aren't going anywhere.

Yes they are.

Also, it looks like RT & Co. want to test out the arterial tailgating idea well before 2016. While it certainly won't replicate a traditional tailgating experience, I think this could work for the majority of fans.

http://www.startribune.com/local/minnea ... ml?refer=y

by SixOneTwo
Yes they are.

Also, it looks like RT & Co. want to test out the arterial tailgating idea well before 2016. While it certainly won't replicate a traditional tailgating experience, I think this could work for the majority of fans.

http://www.startribune.com/local/minnea ... ml?refer=y

From the story:
Vikings Vice President Lester Bagley said he plans to meet with Rybak and other city officials on Friday to learn more about the city's plan. "We want to assure a great game-day experience for our fans," Bagley said. "So we're looking forward to hearing the details of this proposal. We need to know more."

I sure hope they talk to people from light rail. I would say no.

This is a great idea. Set the stage for a fun new type of experience. I don't think peds will be allowed access to the tracks, LRV.

by SixOneTwo
Yes they are.

Also, it looks like RT & Co. want to test out the arterial tailgating idea well before 2016. While it certainly won't replicate a traditional tailgating experience, I think this could work for the majority of fans.

http://www.startribune.com/local/minnea ... ml?refer=y

From the story:
Vikings Vice President Lester Bagley said he plans to meet with Rybak and other city officials on Friday to learn more about the city's plan. "We want to assure a great game-day experience for our fans," Bagley said. "So we're looking forward to hearing the details of this proposal. We need to know more."

I sure hope they talk to people from light rail. I would say no.

Can you please explain why? Is it for fear of pedestrians wandering into the tracks? If so, that could be pretty easily solved with some sort of separation.

I think the idea seems great and provides a good urban friendly alternative to tailgating.

One of my first thoughts after hearing about that plan was the thought that the LRT line gets very busy during game days, so you wouldn't really want to try and get more people to take useless short trips on the train -- but this fits in between the Metrodome and Government Plaza stations, so I don't know whether people would try to ride.

But this all makes me think of that unusable space above the parking ramp northwest of the Metrodome station. That was clearly designed to have another structure built on top of it, but nothing is there yet. It could be made usable pretty easily -- put some planters or tables on top of the square pads so people don't trip over them, add a few stairways to help people deal with the weird elevation changes, and maybe poke a few extra holes in the walls/fences that surround it.

those arches aren't going anywhere.

Yes they are.

There has been much discussion on this board about a new light rail station being built, but unless I am mistaken, that hasn't been announced. I beleive they do plan to have an expanded plaza, but I don't think any designs have been released. They may decide to keep the arches as part of the plaza. Also, significantly reconstructing the station itself would be pretty disruptive. A center platform (or better yet a center/side combo) would handle crowds and transfers better, but it would almost certainly involve realigning the tracks as well.

those arches aren't going anywhere.

Yes they are.

There has been much discussion on this board about a new light rail station being built, but unless I am mistaken, that hasn't been announced. I beleive they do plan to have an expanded plaza, but I don't think any designs have been released. They may decide to keep the arches as part of the plaza. Also, significantly reconstructing the station itself would be pretty disruptive. A center platform (or better yet a center/side combo) would handle crowds and transfers better, but it would almost certainly involve realigning the tracks as well.

The initial plan floated by the Wilfs in 2007 included a new light rail station on the site. All of the conceptual renderings have included this element as well. Hopefully we learn something more concrete once an architect is chosen (MSFA recently stated that a decision would be announced on or before October 5th).

It's only my opinion, but I don't see any way they keep the arches in the new design, especially if its possible to salvage and relocate them (or a portion thereof) to another location in the City. The arches more than likely won't fit the aesthetic of the stadium/plaza and a more substantial - perhaps fully enclosed - light rail station will need to be built covering the area where the arches currently stand.

I would be shocked if the arches stay.

But did the renderings show a completely new station platform, or simply the current station with a roof over it. Everything that has been released has been conceptual. I think we need to wait until the final design is released before we can say with certainty that the arches will be removed.

This is what the conceptual renderings showed vis-a-vis the light rail station:



And yes, as I said, we need to wait until an architect is chosen and final designs are unveiled. But in my personal opinion, the designers of a $1B project should not feel the need to incorporate a set strange non-iconic artistic arches that will likely clash with the look and feel of the plaza and stadium.

Watching the Vikings at the Colts right now, and I can't help being super distracted by the shadows that are cast on the field by only having the sun coming into the field through the giant window at Lucas Oil Stadium. Is this a thing people have brought up before? Wouldn't be an issue at night but it's bothering me a lot on my not-amazing TV.

It could be worth considering if the Vikings are considering the giant side window scheme in lieu of a retractable roof.

Watching the Vikings at the Colts right now, and I can't help being super distracted by the shadows that are cast on the field by only having the sun coming into the field through the giant window at Lucas Oil Stadium. Is this a thing people have brought up before? Wouldn't be an issue at night but it's bothering me a lot on my not-amazing TV.

It could be worth considering if the Vikings are considering the giant side window scheme in lieu of a retractable roof.

Lucas Oil Stadium is no doubt nice, but they screwed up with the window placement - it's NE, thus much more direct sunlight than a west facing window would receive in Mpls. The materials are stark contrasts to natural light as well, dark brown brick, a non transparent roof while closed, deeper blue seats, dark beams - the window is also too high up.

We better not go retro brick with this thing & the use of lighter colors is a must. Spare us purple seats - go with more neutral colors, variations of stainless steels color, and if we have to go with Kasota limestone - which in this case would be wise - integrate the limestone on a lesser scale.

I was going to post about the shadows too. Pretty distracting.

Ditto! I thought architects accounted for that kind of thing? You hear so much about shadowing for projects along the Greenway, that somehow I find it difficult to believe that this issue would somehow be missed in the development of our new stadium, but it's certainly worth pointing out!

Remember this?
http://imgur.com/xGPbp
I am not surprised Indy didn't pay attention to details if they let stuff like this get built downtown.

I don't think the architects "missed" the idea that the sun would cast shadows on their building. A sun study was done, but I'm guessing there was some trade off between having a closed off stadium with perfect artificial lighting, or sunny fall games with some shadows.

I saw the shadows on TV this weekend too. Distracting, maybe, venue ruining, no. I'm not saying Minneapolis can't do it better, but it's also fair to point out being at the stadium you wouldn't notice the shadows near as much as you do on TV because the pupil in an eye can adjust much better than a series of F-stops in a camera lens. For example: The shadows at Target Field never bother me when I'm at the game, but I do notice them on TV.

Here's the non-scientific explanation from Indy news about the shadows after Lucas Oil opened, and people there watching TV noticed the same thing. (Maybe its a conspiracy to subtly get people to want to be at the game rather than watching it )

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgpwJ4GS76w[/youtube]

Wow -- the area around Lucas Oil Stadium looks more desolate than around the Dome! See folks, it COULD be worse!

I'm not certain, but I think that's probably the back of the stadium. It has a reputation for being well connection to downtown Indianapolis and the convention center, which doesn't come through in that picture.