urbanMSP

"Greening Downtown Minneapolis" has been formed to oversee the commons. Among other things it says that the Vikings $1 million contribution was given on condition that the park not be named for another corporation.

http://www.startribune.com/local/blogs/278552941.html

Man you beat me to it. This is good news though. As long as someone other than the Vikings are in charge there might be some hope

"Greening Downtown Minneapolis" has been formed to oversee the commons. Among other things it says that the Vikings $1 million contribution was given on condition that the park not be named for another corporation.

http://www.startribune.com/local/blogs/278552941.html

I'm not sure what's more sad...that the Vikings thought $1 million was enough to stave off new corporate donations or that we were suckers enough to take the deal.

Is there a length stipulations, or is this a forever thing?

I'm for let the highest bidder win the right. Viking will have to do better than match who ever wants the rights. Give them their money back and open it to all bidders.

I'm for let the highest bidder win the right. Viking will have to do better than match who ever wants the rights. Give them their money back and open it to all bidders.

Agreed!

Why is everyone so gung-ho about selling public space again? I really doubt they're going to be unable to find the money.

Agreed, I'd much rather their not be a corporate naming sponsor associated with this.

Talking to a project management staff member from Ryan on this project, he confirmed the second floor will contain skyway, retail, and mechanically only. Originally in the plan the first few floors would have been pretensioned parking structure, but Wells Fargo didn't need it nor wanted to pay for it. So the extra tall 36' floor exists so that the offices start above the residential structure that will be built at the front of the lot. Wells Fargo will have basic conference facilities on the 4th floor.

Not sure if it was here or at the parking ramp site, but I noticed a lot of fire trucks around while I was transferring at Downtown East. Also smelled a bit of smoke.

Don't think the police/fire department presence around there had anything to do with the Downtown East Project. Drive by at around 7:25 this morning and it looked like a few firefighters were coming out of the ramp under the metrodome station. Didn't notice any smoke, but there could have been a car fire or something similar.

I pulled into the ramp at Downtown East around 8:30 this morning and it was filled with a nasty smelling smoke. The lower level had huge pools of standing water and smelled no better so I hightailed it out of there and headed for the Haaf ramp. My day generally starts out better when I'm on the Green Line.

Considering that there were no fire fighters on the grounds of the Wells Fargo buildling or the parking ramp, and work was continuing on those projects, and also the smell of smoke at the light rail station without smoke literally billowing out from somewhere, and then two people seeing activity in the ramp, sounds like a car fire or something down there.

Just a bit of a notice; the application for "The Commons" were due yesterday and the RFP has now been taken off of the city website. So now they're in the process of choosing the best option for this site.

https://twitter.com/Growingmpls/status/ ... 3355095040

14 sounds like a good amount to look through! I'm excited to see some of the ideas

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/m ... -park.html

Here's the list and where each firm is from, looked up OJB and they seem like a really cool firm! They've had experience with some urban park spaces.

yes i agree. they have a difficult decision with this list. i cannot wait for the transformation of more surface parking.

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/m ... -park.html

Here's the list and where each firm is from, looked up OJB and they seem like a really cool firm! They've had experience with some urban park spaces.

Many very quality teams on this list. It should be fun to see what is proposed. I hope someone included an iconic fountain or water feature!!!

So happy not to see oslund.

I thought the same thing, but they must be secretly embedded in one of the other teams, right? No way they'd miss out on submitting for a project like this.