The final four design teams progressing in the largest design competition in Minneapolis history were announced on November 8. It will now be up to city residents to help a 13-member jury of city leaders decide which urban landscape design firm will win the chance to mold undeveloped riverfront property into a 21st Century park.
Each team in the Minneapolis Riverfront Design Competition (MRDC) is vying for the chance to design 5.4 miles of Mississippi riverfront that leads from the Stone Arch Bridge to the northern city limits. The top teams, three of which have ties to Minneapolis, include: Ken Smith Workshop of New York City, NY; Stoss Landscape Urbanism of Boston, Mass.; Tom Leader Studio of Berkeley, Calif.; and Turenscape of Beijing, China.
"I must say that the four selected teams really embody the aspirations of the next generation of parks," said MRDC Project Manager Mary deLaitre. More than just meeting the sponsors' three larger goals of establishing parks as an economic engine, knitting neighborhoods together and recreating the Mississippi River as a main identity, deLaitre said it was also clear that the jury sought ideas with innovation and inspiration.
The next round of voting, when the jury chooses the winning design, will take place on January 28. Before that vote, Minneapolis residents will have an opportunity to give feedback to the four teams via "Designer Ask," a survey that should be available at Minneapolis Park and Rec Centers and on the MRDC website in December: http://minneapolisriverfrontdesigncompetition.com/.
The Designer Ask questions were created based on a three-day visit the top four teams made to Minneapolis at the end of November. Responses gathered from the survey will be given to the design teams for their consideration before the jury makes its final selection.
At one last presentation on January 27, the teams will have an opportunity to respond to any concerns posed by Designer Ask. Community members are encourage to attend the event, hosted at the Walker Art Center, which will be free and open to the public.
At the final presentation, estimated project costs will also be announced, said David Fisher, current superintendent of Minneapolis Park and Rec (MPRB).
At this point in time, there is no dollar amount on what it may cost to revitalize the riverfront because it is hard to assign monetary value to an idea, Fisher said. "We really don't know what the price tag of [the winning project] will be yet because we're still in the conceptual stage," he added.
In order to take those conceptual ideas and make them into the park of "our dreams," energy from community members will be vital, said MN Representative Diane Loeffler. "Community groups don't get acknowledged enough for how they start the dream," she said. Loeffler has lived in Minneapolis her whole life and she said decades of dreams for what to do with the Mississippi riverfront have come and gone, but now is the time to step up.
The sponsors of the MRDC are the MRPB, the Minneapolis Parks Foundation, and creative partners the University of Minnesota College of Design and the Walker Art Center.
The MRDC Jurors
Andrew Blauvelt
Barbara Johnson
Bill Wenk
David Fisher
Diane Hofstede
Diane Loefler
John Erwin
Liz Wielinski
Mark Stenglein
Peter McLaughlin
R.T. Rybak
Thomas Fisher
William Rees Morrish
For biographies of the jury members go to http://www. minneapolisriverfrontdesign