Nicollet Mall to become Nicollet "Mile," have a "woodsy" feel (Grant: apartments, quality of life)

[pete6032]

Architect of new, mile-long Nicollet Mall envisions a 'woodsy' feel | Star Tribune

For Nicollet Mall — renamed “Nicollet Mile” — New York Landscape Architect James Corner envisions a “woodsy” promenade where Minneapolitans will live, work, shop and play.

As Corner explains it, the mall’s new curbless thoroughfare will retain its signature serpentine curves, the brainchild of original landscape architect Lawrence Halprin in 1962. The last significant renovation to the mall was about 25 years ago, and Corner says its current iteration lacks identity, is deteriorating and appears cluttered. “It’s an uninviting space,” he said.


His plan for the stretch connecting Grant Street with Washington Avenue divides the mall into distinct districts: Loring Woods, South Groves, Island, North Groves and Mississippi Woods. The project does not include Peavey Plaza.

[Mr. In-Between]

Looks nice, but if they're really thinking of birch trees, they should do some research before planting. Some species of birch are very sensitive to salt, and those trees are going to get a lot of it.

[pete6032]

It looks like an outdoors Caribou Coffee. Can we please move on from the cabin theme? We need something more sophisticated that shows that MSP can be a world class city.

Why can't we get a local designer to do it? That would certainly be better than hiring someone from New York who thinks of the Twin Cities as a tiny town in the woods.

[rzzz]

That designer did a great job with the High Line in Manhattan, though. To me it looks more like the street level "beaches" NYC has put up in Manhattan with the High Line "urban nature" theme. Given what normally gets built in MPLS I would vote for local designers banned from all further architecture and landscape input. Every new building put up in the past 10 years looks like U housing from the late 1990s. That awful prefab "loft" theme with beige brick and tin is tired and makes all these new apartments look dated by the time they are finished.

[Ghengis]

Ha! it's only .8 miles from Washington to 12th Street...somebody contact Snopes!

[MplsTodd]

Originally Posted by Albert_The_Crocodile

Looks nice, but if they're really thinking of birch trees, they should do some research before planting. Some species of birch are very sensitive to salt, and those trees are going to get a lot of it.

When they updated the Nicollet Mall in the early '90s, there was a tree controversy with that renovation. I remember they had Austrian fir trees or something like that in front of Gavidae Common. Unfortunately, these trees also weren't suitable for an urban core location and they all died off. I'm assuming (hoping, anyway) that the landscape architect who designed the current version is well versed in urban trees.
If that fails, maybe they could bring back the aluminum trees someone proposed for Hennepin Avenue back in the late '70s.

[Oildog]

What a waste of taxpayer money.

[FierySun]

Originally Posted by Oildog

What a waste of taxpayer money.

That's your opinion. The businesses that are located on Nicollet Mall and the residents who live downtown don't share that opinion.

[StilltheSame]

No. Fail. Deny.

[Mr. In-Between]

Originally Posted by Oildog

What a waste of taxpayer money.

One of the things I loved about Minnesota (and miss a great deal now that I'm living in Kentucky) is that the state, local, and county governments were willing to spend significant tax revenues on quality of life features such as arts, culture, and parks and recreation. Now I live in a comparative craphole where they don't even spend money on street signs, apparently because they figure that if you don't know what street you're on, you wouldn't have turned onto it in the first place, and anyone who's stupid enough to drive on a street they don't even know the name of probably deserves to get lost and eaten by vultures anyway. Or maybe because they figure it's a waste of money because nobody here knows how to read in the first place, because they don't spend more than about a buck and a quarter on education, either.

At any rate, I prefer the Minnesota-Twin Cities philosophy by a wide margin. If you're going to live someplace, I'd like my elected leaders to spend a little money to make it a place that's actually worth living in.