Water Works: A Gateway Park to the Mississippi River
26/10/2014.
[VIDEO] from Minneapolis Parks Foundation [Minneapolis, MN] USA
metalocus, ÁNGEL BLANCO
metalocus, ÁNGEL BLANCO
For 12,000 years, the Mississippi River has powered through Minnesota, where it’s scrawled a deep gorge like a signature through limestone and prairie. The source of this massive geological imprint was the River’s only true waterfall, now known as St. Anthony Falls, which receded over millennia and now graces the heart of Minneapolis. It is this unique geography, geology and history that inspired a schematic vision for a new destination park on the West Bank of St. Anthony Falls, developed by the Minneapolis Parks Foundation in partnership with the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, and conveyed to Park Board Commissioners on Wednesday, October 22.
Analysis. Water Works: A Gateway Park to the Mississippi River. Image courtesy of Minneapolis Parks Foundation.
Analysis. Water Works: A Gateway Park to the Mississippi River. Image courtesy of Minneapolis Parks Foundation.
Overview. Water Works: A Gateway Park to the Mississippi River. Image courtesy of Minneapolis Parks Foundation.
Overview. Water Works: A Gateway Park to the Mississippi River. Image courtesy of Minneapolis Parks Foundation.
The water story. Water Works: A Gateway Park to the Mississippi River. Image courtesy of Minneapolis Parks Foundation.
Zoning diagrams. Water Works: A Gateway Park to the Mississippi River. Image courtesy of Minneapolis Parks Foundation.
Aerial plan. Water Works: A Gateway Park to the Mississippi River. Image courtesy of Minneapolis Parks Foundation.
Rendering. Water Works: A Gateway Park to the Mississippi River. Image courtesy of Minneapolis Parks Foundation.
Rendering. Water Works: A Gateway Park to the Mississippi River. Image courtesy of Minneapolis Parks Foundation.
Labeled plan. Water Works: A Gateway Park to the Mississippi River. Image courtesy of Minneapolis Parks Foundation.
Winter rendering. Water Works: A Gateway Park to the Mississippi River. Image courtesy of Minneapolis Parks Foundation.
Winter rendering. Water Works: A Gateway Park to the Mississippi River. Image courtesy of Minneapolis Parks Foundation.
Water Works: A Gateway Park to the Mississippi River. Image courtesy of Minneapolis Parks Foundation.
Overview. Water Works: A Gateway Park to the Mississippi River. Image courtesy of Minneapolis Parks Foundation.
Water Works: A Gateway Park to the Mississippi River. Image courtesy of Minneapolis Parks Foundation.
The Minneapolis Parks Foundation seeking to reassert a connection a particularly historic section of the Mississippi river, has commissioned the development of a new waterfront park adjacent to St. Anthony Falls. Dubbed ‘Water Works’, the design is being led by SCAPE / landscape architecture and ROGERS PARTNERS architects+urban designers, whom revealed their plans on october 22. The 16,000m² site will feature heritage ruins, wide stretches of local vegetation, bike/pedestrian pathways, a pavilion structure, and a series of flexible landscape ‘rooms’.
History, ecology and recreation are integrated to form a signature riverfront park that uniquely embraces its Minneapolis context. The complexities of the site require a nuanced and balanced approach to expressing the past, accommodating present uses and anticipating future needs. Water has literally shaped the natural and manmade landscapes here and the park design is equally inspired by the historic, water powered milling infrastructure upon which Minneapolis was built and the local bluff geology that formed the St. Anthony Falls.
The proposal is a composite of three distinct zones, each defined by an interpretation of historic resources, expression of native ecology and geology and resolves extant circulation conflicts. Along with a strategic use of architecture, occupiable, terraced bluffs make critical topographic connections within the park and beyond to its surroundings. These unique features coalesce to structure a park that could only exist in Minneapolis.
More information
ROGERS PARTNERS
ROGERS PARTNERS was founded in August 2013 by Rob Rogers, former partner of the eponymous Rogers Marvel Architects (RMA). For more than 20 years, with partner Jonathan Marvel, Rob led the firm to wide success with award winning residential, educational, cultural and open space projects. RMA received the coveted Medal of Honor award from the AIA’s New York City chapter, a testament to the firm’s contribution to architecture in the New York region: “For their steadfast commitment to design excellence on all scales ranging from furniture to building to planning and landscape. This innovative and energetic practice combines a strong conceptual framework with a tireless attention to context, detail, and construction.
SCAPE-KATE ORFF
SCAPE is a New York City-based landscape architecture firm co-founded by Kate Orff, who is also Assistant Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and co-author of Petrochemical America (Aperture Foundation 2012). The firm has completed projects in Brooklyn, NY, Greenville, SC, and Dublin, Ireland.
Kate Orff is a registered landscape architect and the founding principal of SCAPE, a landscape architecture and urban design office based in Manhattan. After graduating from the University of Virginia with Distinction, Kate earned a Master in Landscape Architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard. In 1996, she was a member of small research group focused on the urbanization of Pearl River Delta, led by architect Rem Koolhaas, which became the first case study in the internationally recognized Harvard Project on the City. Kate later worked for the planning and landscape architecture firm Hargreaves Associates and for OMA/AMO.
Kate is also an Associate Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where she teaches graduate design studios and interdisciplinary seminars focused on sustainable development, biodiversity, and community-based change. She is the co-author of Petrochemical America (Aperture Foundation, 2012) and co-editor of Gateway: Visions for an Urban National Park (Princeton, 2011). Her essays have appeared in The Great Leap Forward, Waterfront Visions, Volume, Land Forum, and other books and journals. Kate was named a United States Artist in 2012, a National Academician in 2013, one of “50 for the Future of Design” by H&G, a Dwell Magazine “Design Leader” and was featured in “Front Runners: 25 Young Designers Leading The Pack” by Azure Magazine. She lectures widely in the U.S. and abroad on the topic of urban landscape and new paradigms of thinking, collaborating and designing for the anthropocene era.
Her work has been cited in publications such as the New Yorker, National Geographic, the Economist, the New York Times, and New York Magazine, in addition to architecture and planning publications such as Metropolis, Dwell, Azure, Landscape Architecture Magazine, LA China, and many others. She has been interviewed on National Public Radio, NY1, Bloomberg News, and the Brian Lehrer Show.
