urbanMSP

By the way, in case anyone missed it, on this page under Schematic Designs, there are PDFs with high res images of absolutely everything related to the stadium, including the Ryan development, plaza designs, landscape designs, sun studies, parking options, road alterations, drainage…you name it.

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/cped/PeoplesStadium

Claiming that your space is designed to be "inviting" is one of the cheapest rhetorical moves an architect can make. Do they think the Metrodome was designed to be excluding? I'm sure the architects in 1981 or whenever plans were announced claimed that their design would be similarly used year round.

Gold Medal Park is well-used because it's in a beautiful location near the falls a museum and a theater. The plaza by Target Field is never used outside of baseball games. This "Yard" will also not be used outside of games unless they put an attraction there; e.g. ball fields, swimming pool/pond, playground, etc. Those things would of course get in the way of people getting drunk there before games, so they are unlikely to do so.

The immediate stadium grounds are even less likely to be filled with year-round usable functions, because they need to reserve that space for Bud Light stands, enormous speakers blaring terrible music, space for the Capital City Goofball to jump around, etc. Jane Jacobs figured this stuff out 50 years ago. Too bad no politicians are brave enough to admit it.

gold medal park is not heavily used. it's not even universally loved. sure people will occasionally walk up the man made hill for the view but that's about it. (my opinion)

target plaza functions wonderfully as a connecting space. no it's not crowded like it is on game days but lots of people use it as the nicely designed thru-way that it is.

gold medal park is not heavily used. it's not even universally loved. sure people will occasionally walk up the man made hill for the view but that's about it. (my opinion)

Completely agree. It suffers from lack of programming and engagement from the city around it.

Maybe I'm talking about a different space - I was thinking of the half-deck plaza over 394 on the east end of the stadium. The only people who regularly move through that are cyclists going between the poorly-placed Cedar Lake Trail exit and 6th St. I know this because I walk past this plaza twice on a typical day. Many people (like me) use the bridge over 2nd Ave to get to the parking ramp but almost no one continues to the plaza, in my experience.

I almost always see Gold Medal Plaza full of people, either walking around the edges or sitting (often picnicing) on the grass. I ride on West River Pkwy fairly often on weekday evenings or weekends. Not that more programming wouldn't help.

gold medal park is not heavily used. it's not even universally loved. sure people will occasionally walk up the man made hill for the view but that's about it. (my opinion)

Completely agree. It suffers from lack of programming and engagement from the city around it.

It's interesting on a conceptual/artistic level, but pragmatically for the user, its a rather dull and lifeless park. Having Izzy's across the street with the new Stonebridge Lofts will help bring more people to the area and define its eastern edge better. It needs more attractions around it ( i.e. a few restaurants). The man made hill is the best component with the nice view, and gives it some visual drama. Needs a little stage or ampitheater for events, a water feature, and more lush plantings.

It would help if the flat areas around the base of the hill wasn't always standing water. Its like someone is mowing over a swamp.

It would help if the flat areas around the base of the hill wasn't always standing water. Its like someone is mowing over a swamp.

I live nearby and love gold medal. Very peaceful and beautiful park but this is the one really odd and offputting part of the park. It won't have rained for a week and parts of it will still be soaked through.

It has always been like a swamp, especially on Guthrie side of the hill. The grass is unusable and the paths are useless for actual movement through the park. One of the many reasons I don't go gaga for Oslund.

Did they neglect to build in a drainage system or something? How could this happen?

It has always been like a swamp, especially on Guthrie side of the hill. The grass is unusable and the paths are useless for actual movement through the park. One of the many reasons I don't go gaga for Oslund.

You're not supposed to actually use the park -- just look at it from a hot air balloon. See! It's a spiral!

I actually heard a discussion about this sort of thing at CNU 21 last week. There's emerging study about how we perceive things so differently in real life compared to these aerial perspectives used in the planning process. A spiral probably looked really sweet when viewed on a plan from above, but serves little value (for obvious reasons) for those on the ground. Another example is how planners often try to provide these curved streets of five or ten degrees, which look great on maps and planning documents. In real life, they are far too severe of curves, and the human aesthetic viewed from the ground actually prefers one or maybe two degrees of turn on a street, gradual enough where you can see the form for a distance of a few blocks, but there's a visual terminus to create the feeling of a public room.

So now they're calling the Ryan development park "East Village". It could get City Council approval as soon as mid July. New images, with stadium included, here:

http://blogs.mprnews.org/stadium-watch/ ... look-like/

Village? What village? The 'placemaker' they hired missed the mark.

Damn the new stadium is huge in those. Can anyone show me a pic of the Metrodome and the NVS next to each other, so I can get an idea of how big the NVS will end up being?

boy... I hope they ran the idea of calling this a "village" before some of this forum's members. Anyone have anything to say about how this makes the mayor and/or any of the city council members look like idiots... and you a genius?

I thought the Ryan Project was 274 feet... with the possibility of going up to near 300 with changes to the crown(s). They have it labeled as 304 feet. I suppose at this stage of development all are accurate?

Either way, the new stadium/park/ryan project will have a huge presence town... It's watching the birth of a neighborhood.

Damn the new stadium is huge in those. Can anyone show me a pic of the Metrodome and the NVS next to each other, so I can get an idea of how big the NVS will end up being?

Here's a comparison of the longest elevations - the Metrodome's N-S, and the NVS's E-W lengths. Dimensions are taken from Emporis and the new stadium pdf file:



Superimposed:

That's a big boat!

According to Sid, "the hot rumor" is that U.S. Bank is the favorite for naming rights. That would make sense, since banks often take on naming rights and U.S. Bank is a bit under the radar being a massive bank based in Minneapolis. I wonder when they would go ahead and pull the trigger, since every news article about the stadium construction could be an advertisement for the company. I believe San Francisco just finalized their naming rights a few months ago and their stadium is at least a year ahead of ours, for what that's worth, so maybe nothing is imminent.

Mall of America Field at U.S. Bank Stadium?