71 France & Byerly's - Edina

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min-chi-cbus
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Re: Edina Byerly's Redevelopment (Southdale Area)

Postby min-chi-cbus » March 12th, 2014, 8:06 pm

Not quite.....a highway for bicyclists and pedestrians.

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Re: Edina Byerly's Redevelopment (Southdale Area)

Postby mattaudio » March 13th, 2014, 9:07 am

Indeed, Edina wishing for development fronting France Ave is like Apple Valley wishing for walkable TOD along Cedar Avenue. They are far too stroady to be effective. They would do much better focusing on a parallel corridor like York, or the pathway between York and France. Create a smaller street grid as these megaparcels get redeveloped. And then try to reduce the pain points for bike/ped crossing of France.

Unless they want to do a grand multiway boulevard, or push most of the cars off France, France Ave will never be a hospitable environ.

blobs
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Re: Edina Byerly's Redevelopment (Southdale Area)

Postby blobs » March 19th, 2014, 8:54 pm

It's unfortunate. On the south side of 62, the stroads make the area just sucky. The grid desperately needs redoing here. Plus the frontage roads off of 494 too in Bloomington. All those apartments fronting either the freeway or stroads, I see lots of pedestrians having to contend with that bad urban design.

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Re: Edina Byerly's Redevelopment (Southdale Area)

Postby min-chi-cbus » March 20th, 2014, 12:02 pm

I mean even as an Urbanist myself I can't really reasonably expect suburbs like Edina, Bloomington and even Richfield to be all that walkable and urban, especially in the Southdale area. You have to consider too how incredibly well the Southdale District between Hwy. 62, I-494, France and Xerxes/York is interconnected. I've seen other cities try to emulate the success of say the MOA and/or Centennial Lakes and the one thing they just can't get right is the traffic flow, which is almost always jammed because there are only one or two ways to get into and out of the area. This district has multiple multiple ways of getting into and out of by freeway and through the existing street grid, whether or not it's considered "urban" or "ideal". Besides, people already are up in arms over how much traffic goes through their neighborhoods around this area (I'm referencing W. 70th Street) so without creating a similar issue widespread throughout the street grid surrounding this district having "stroads" like France and York and even 66th and Industrial Blvd/77th Ave is a necessary evil I believe.

I'm not sure how the cities could reasonably create an urban/downtown-like setting here -- where there are millions of SF of Office and Retail space, and thousands of apartments and housing units, providing a regional draw from many miles around -- without drastically slowing everybody down and making accessibility worse while potentially compromising productivity.

Sometimes I wonder if there are just certain built environs. that simply cannot reasonably accomodate typical walkable and intimate urban infrastructure.

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Re: Edina Byerly's Redevelopment (Southdale Area)

Postby Visualizer » March 21st, 2014, 12:47 pm

France Ave is undergoing re-construction this spring to create a more pedestrian-friendly environment. Traffic calming measures are being implemented along York Ave.
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Re: Edina Byerly's Redevelopment (Southdale Area)

Postby twincitizen » March 25th, 2014, 5:06 pm

The new store taking shape from the parking lot under a weird canopy/walkway thing.

This development is called 71 France, based on the logo on the retaining wall at the intersection.
EDIT: Yep, 71 France http://www.popearch.com/projects/byerly ... evelopment

Image

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Re: 71 France & Byerly's - Edina

Postby maxbaby » June 10th, 2014, 2:07 pm


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Re: 71 France & Byerly's - Edina

Postby mister.shoes » November 7th, 2014, 1:44 pm

The old Byerly's building is almost entirely gone. I saw quite the parade of semis going in and out to take away the rubble.

The L-shaped building in the far back/SE corner is up to the second floor of stick and I could see a rather large pile of pre-made wall panels sitting to the side of the site.
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Re: Edina Byerly's Redevelopment (Southdale Area)

Postby sdho » November 7th, 2014, 3:25 pm

The new store taking shape from the parking lot under a weird canopy/walkway thing.

This development is called 71 France, based on the logo on the retaining wall at the intersection.
EDIT: Yep, 71 France http://www.popearch.com/projects/byerly ... evelopment

Image
Yeah what is UP with that canopy thing.

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Re: 71 France & Byerly's - Edina

Postby pannierpacker » November 9th, 2014, 8:36 pm

I decided to do some urban exploration on France Ave during a beautiful October weekday afternoon. It was about 65 and windy with few clouds which made it a very good time to walk and take pictures! Here is some eye candy for your benefit.

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Old windy sidewalk past Centennial Lakes. The newer and much wider sidewalk on the east side stops just north of here. I'm facing south.

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Cool truck that happened to be parked near Centennial Lakes

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Typical crossing at France Ave after redo. This happens to be at 76th.

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New sidewalk construction continues on west side of street for a block or two, going south. Nifty and indestructible staircase leads onto private property.

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Back on the east side of France, facing north along West Elm

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Facing new Byerlys development

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Lower level patio at Byerlys even has heat lamps. Can you believe it?

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Facing south in front of Byerlys entrance. Notice the upper level patio. This has a decent view of France Ave and belongs to the Bylerlys wine bar on the upper level.

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Facing north along the ramp leading down from Byerlys to the intersection

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Facing north, the new sidewalk stops at 70th, just before the Galleria.

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Facing south at beginning of new sidewalk, just south of 70th street.

https://picasaweb.google.com/1004921015 ... 1037414770
A few more slides can be found here, including the existing 494 crossing.

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sdho
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Re: 71 France & Byerly's - Edina

Postby sdho » November 9th, 2014, 10:05 pm

Thanks for sharing the pics. The frontage by Byerly's looks pretty good, but how is the walk to the front door? Seems like fairly blank walls facing the sidewalk. Also don't love the porkchop / free right across that new sidewalk for the new 71 France driveway.

But it's definitely miles better than the old site.

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Re: 71 France & Byerly's - Edina

Postby mattaudio » November 10th, 2014, 9:24 am

France definitely needs boulevard trees. And it would have been nice if they used this opportunity to reimagine it with on-street parking to encourage buildings to address the street.

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Re: 71 France & Byerly's - Edina

Postby sdho » November 10th, 2014, 10:45 am

France definitely needs boulevard trees. And it would have been nice if they used this opportunity to reimagine it with on-street parking to encourage buildings to address the street.
I agree, but when I met with engineers on the project, they really emphasized that this isn't so much about making France perfect, but getting the base infrastructure in -- east side sidewalk, decent crossings -- so that developers have something to build off of. They said they expect that as redevelopment takes place, the sidewalk would be pulled back even farther, and plantings would exist outside the 6' clear zone -- like it is today at Whole Foods and Centennial Lakes.

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Re: 71 France & Byerly's - Edina

Postby mattaudio » November 10th, 2014, 10:53 am

this isn't so much about making France perfect, but getting the base infrastructure in -- east side sidewalk, decent crossings -- so that developers have something to build off of.
http://stroadtoboulevard.tumblr.com/

And, the best animated gif of all time...
http://streets-book.com/wp-content/uplo ... d-1151.gif

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Re: 71 France & Byerly's - Edina

Postby pannierpacker » November 10th, 2014, 5:36 pm

Thanks for sharing the pics. The frontage by Byerly's looks pretty good, but how is the walk to the front door? Seems like fairly blank walls facing the sidewalk. Also don't love the porkchop / free right across that new sidewalk for the new 71 France driveway.

But it's definitely miles better than the old site.
Right by the patio/entrance it is fairly interesting because there are tables/chairs outdoors. As you get away from the entrance, you are correct in that there is a long blank wall, if I remember correctly. It is somewhat amusing though to peer over the railing next do the sidewalk down below onto France Ave as it's quite a drop.

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Re: 71 France & Byerly's - Edina

Postby Anondson » March 13th, 2015, 9:56 pm

Apparently the 71 France apartment now topped out were built straddling schooling district boundaries, and no one thought how to deal with it until now.

http://current.mnsun.com/2015/03/richfi ... partments/

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Re: 71 France & Byerly's - Edina

Postby seanrichardryan » March 13th, 2015, 10:02 pm

Oh dear! If there's anything people in Edina Like to worry about more than parking its schools! whatever will they do?
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