As a planner and urban designer with Cuningham Group, I played a significant part in the early phases of the project. I completed the initial mapping and analysis of the corridor, creating a comprehensive series of maps and photographs that explored the current environment. I also coordinated efforts with multiple sub-consultants that were working on the traffic engineering and way-finding elements of the plan. I assisted in planning and managed the logistics of both the public kick-off meeting and a place-making workshop. 

For the place-making workshop, I designed a completely new exercise to help the public discuss and decide on what types of development they would like to see at several key locations along the corridor. In this exercise, we provided large aerials of each area and asked teams to draw where they would like to see new infrastructure and land uses, and then choose from provided photographs what type of development they preferred. Afterward I received several comments from the participants that they really enjoyed the exercise!

I then analyzed this information to develop three land use alternatives for critical portions of the project area. I mapped these areas and generated graphs showing the break-down of acres of each land use. This information allowed elected officials to see, understand, and discuss land use alternatives in the project area.

Once located at the edge of town, the Oxford Street area later developed quickly and without a comprehensive vision when the interstate was built nearby. Current issues include large underutilized parcels, haphazard land uses, an incomplete street system, and almost no infrastructure for walking and biking. The Oxford Street Redevelopment plan lays out a vision for the area that includes policy and design standard recommendations and identifies critical public investments and redevelopment projects.

As a planner and urban designer with Cuningham Group, I played a significant part in the development of the project and the initial report. I completed the initial mapping and analysis of the corridor, creating a complex series of maps that explored how the city developed over time and how this contributed to the current environment. I assisted in the planning and leading of most steering committee meetings and public workshops. I was closely involved in the development of the recommendations for reorganizing and clarifying land uses, business access, and the street system. I also helped to identify locations for new parks and trails, housing, streets and infrastructure, and develop the associated design standards.

Oxford Street itself is currently overbuilt for its traffic numbers, which makes it a good candidate for a road diet. I designed alternative concepts for Oxford Street, which explored new features such as bike lanes, temporary or permanent bump-outs, on-street parking, and planted medians.

Okabena Creek, which runs through the site, is currently treated as a drainage ditch, engineered to carry stormwater away from the area as quickly as possible. While this fulfills the important function of mitigating potential flooding of the surrounding low-lying neighborhoods, I developed two alternative designs that would also allow the creek to provide important recreational and ecological functions.

Oxford Street’s center median and businesses’ separate driveways created an access problem. In order to facilitate discussion and decision-making at a stakeholders’ meeting, I put together a presentation that tracked imaginary travelers in each of the four streetscape alternatives and rated their paths based on qualitative measures that aligned with stated community goals. This allowed the group to understand the implications of each alternative and use this information to make the decision that was best for their community.

Northland Mall, now defunct and mostly empty, takes up 18 acres of land along Oxford Street. I researched precedent studies to generate ideas for how the site could be redeveloped to provide mixed uses, including housing, a variety of sizes of retail, and new open space.

The first Robert Street Renaissance Plan, completed in 2000, made much-needed recommendations to improve the streetscape and establish a city center. The community is in the process of reconstructing the street to improve access and create a more attractive environment for all users. The City of West St. Paul called for an update to the previous plan that would take into account the changes since the economic recession, update the urban design guidelines, and develop corresponding form-based codes.

As the project manager on CGA’s planning and urban design team, I led the project interview and played a significant part in the first half of the project. I managed the initial mapping and analysis of the corridor, creating a comprehensive series of maps that explored the current environment and how the corridor had changed since the previous plan. I played a key role in the planning and leading of early steering committee meetings and public workshops. I developed corridor-wide frameworks and identified neighborhood identities. I also assisted in the development of initial corridor-wide design guidelines, including building orientation and set-backs, business access, and building materials. 

Initial discussions with the community identified three significant sites along the corridor that would be the focus of redevelopment and investment. For one of the sites, a struggling mall, I developed three alternative designs for the site that explored mixed-use development and produced the associated hand renderings. I also assisted in the development of land use alternatives for the town center area and hand-rendered several urban design alternatives.

Finally, I helped to solve an accessibility issue for the corridor: the city was wondering how and where on Robert Street to locate a regional bike path crossing. I researched the issue through precedent studies and analyzed the elevation of the area, putting together two section drawings that helped the community make a decision about whether a bridge or underpass crossing would be best.

While a member of the Urban Design Studio at Cuningham Group Architecture, I played a key role in developing, designing, and writing the Holland Neighborhood Small Area Plan, which was approved by the Minneapolis City Council as an official City planning document in March 2015.

The Holland Neighborhood, located in the heart of Northeast Minneapolis, is a progressive community aspiring to find balance between celebrating the past and welcoming innovative new ideas. The Small Area Plan developed a full set of comprehensive recommendations for Holland’s built environment, guiding the community in ways to invest in and build upon the qualities and places that make their neighborhood great.

My role in the project spanned almost every part of the planning process: working closely with the neighborhood board, steering committee, and community to develop and test recommendations; putting together and giving presentations for workshops and meetings; developing graphics and drawings to communicate concepts; and laying out and writing portions of the final report.

My role in the project included all aspects of a Master Plan project, such as working closely with regulating agencies to understand the complexities of a site on the Mississippi River; conducting site analysis and helping to identify site goals; chatting one-on-one with Dubuque residents to understand their needs and concerns; illustrating the final plan design as well as three additional options for a critical portion of the site; and writing and laying out portions of the final report.

My role in the project included most aspects of the planning process from initial mapping, site analysis, and community engagement, to working with the City’s Public Works department to identify implementable stormwater strategies and recommending the location and character of new public open space.

Connecting Neighborhoods to the River with Greenways

In 2012, the Metropolitan Design Center worked with the University District Alliance, a partnership between the University of Minnesota and the four surrounding neighborhoods, to plan a network of greenways and open space that could connect to the Mississippi River. My work on the project focused on planning and conducting a series of neighborhood workshops regarding mobility to the river, researching historic waterways and the benefits of green infrastructure, and creating graphics that communicated our research and design.

Neighborhood Workshops

In order to understand how neighborhoods currently connect to the river, we met with each of the four neighborhoods (Como, Marcy-Holmes, Cedar-Riverside, and Prospect Park) and asked them to draw on maps the routes they currently take on foot and on bike through their neighborhood, as well as those paths they would like to take. I digitized and layered this data for each neighborhood, which allowed us to clearly understand how people move and how they would like to move. Then by layering all of the data on a map of the entire district, we were able to create a composite mobility map from which we could start to plan the new greenway connections.

Analysis & Mapping

Our understanding of the landscape of the University District was focused on water. I worked with the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization to map how the wetlands, springs, streams, and waterfalls that once graced the area were tamed and often demolished as the city of Minneapolis was developed in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  I mapped the topography of the University District, identifying the river terraces and discovering how the river shaped the landscape.

Research into the locations of regional parks and trails allowed us to see how a new greenway framework could fit into the existing network. We found that a 20-mile radius from the University district, there are 104 square miles of open space – by linking the four University District neighborhoods to this system, we could allow inner Metro residents greater access to this priceless amenity.

Research

Working from what we learned from the MWMO about the former river features in the area, I researched the history of the Mississippi River in the University District. I found historic images of lost waterfalls and maps that told the history of industry and culture along the river.

Green infrastructure became an important feature in the design of the greenway network. I researched the benefits of implementing green infrastructure, such as reducing construction costs, providing habitat, and improving quality of life.

In 2011, the Ventura Village neighborhood in Minneapolis approached the Metropolitan Design Center to help them reduce crime in their neighborhood park, which had developed a reputation for guns, drugs, and gang-related violence. The situation had gotten so bad that many local families did not allow their children to play in the park. The Center worked with a large stakeholder group, including neighborhood groups, the Minneapolis Police Department, and local business owners, to research key issues, conduct neighborhood workshops, and ultimately design a park that would greater meet the needs of the community.

My work with the project focused on research and analysis, graphics and layout, streetscape design, workshop development, and report production.

Working with crime statistics provided by the Minneapolis Police Department, I designed graphs illustrating the nature of crime in and around the park. To understand how crime increases and decreases in the “lifecycle” of parks and how neighborhoods can fight back, I conducted a literature review and case studies. This research revealed that busy parks are safe parks and that neighborhoods need to “take back” their parks by making their presence known and programming the space for all types of people in all times of the year.

I assisted in planning and directing a workshop to find out what neighborhood children would like in a park. To get some ideas for how to design a playground to meet the needs determined by the workshop, I developed a series of playground typologies from case studies from around the world. I also created a graphic depicting how Peavey Park could become a “cosmic garden”, introducing children to the wonders of the natural world.

To provide increased access to the park for pedestrians and bicyclists, I developed two streetscape redesign options.

Our research on the lifecycle of parks also revealed that public/private partnerships could be a potentially powerful source of park funding and programming. I conducted case studies of successful partnerships as models for the community as they moved forward with the project.

I was also responsible for doing much of the writing and layout for the final project report.

Since our work on the project, the neighborhood has started a non-profit dedicated to Peavey Park and has programmed weekly events in the park. The Minneapolis Park Board is working to set aside part of their budget for improvements to Peavey Park. Crime is reported to have greatly diminished in the area in the last couple years.

In Phase 1 of the Metropolitan Design Center’s work with Peavey Park in Minneapolis, we found that a busy park is a safe park – that is, planning community events and activities in a park year-round can alleviate crime in the area. Phase 2 expanded upon this work and explored how the existing park could be programmed in the cold, dark winter months, when most people are tempted to spend their time indoors. I spent several months thinking about how we could encourage the community to activate their public space in the winter.

Research

First I looked to the past – what is the relationship between Minnesotans and the season for which their state is so infamous?  Exploring the history of winter sports and festivals in Minnesota led me to understand that Minnesotans didn’t always appreciate the snow and ice – early winter festivals in the 1880s introduced winter sports and made being outside in winter a fun community celebration.

Then I looked for inspiration around the world – how do the other winter cultures and cities around the world celebrate winter? I was inspired by the beautiful and outrageous celebrations, which embrace and tame the unique qualities of winter to bring people outside for fun and excitement.

This exploration also allowed us to catalogue more possible recreational opportunities for Peavey Park. We discovered many new activities utilizing snow and ice, such as ice trails and toboggan slides (both of which are common in communities in Canada) that would attract people of all ages day or night throughout the winter.

This research allowed us to develop an approach for embracing winter and transforming Peavey Park into a winter wonderland of beauty, fun, and community.

Analysis

At a neighborhood workshop we shared our research findings with community leaders and residents. They were excited by the potential for Peavey Park to become a regional winter attraction and the implications this could have for revitalizing the neighborhood. Their feedback on what types of activities they wanted to see in the park gave us an idea of how to move forward with the design.

I mapped the existing winter recreational opportunities in the city and discovered that winter activities at Peavey Park would fill a service gap within the Minneapolis park system. This also gave me a better idea of what recreational types might be needed in the area. Next I conducted case studies and examined standard regulations to determine the spatial requirements for the desired winter activities.

During an afternoon at Peavey Park on a bright sunny January day, I photographed the site, took measurements, and made notes about the site’s opportunities and constraints. With this information, I put together a series of analysis maps exploring the park’s existing structures, programming, vegetation, views, and topography, and then synthesized this information to create an analysis map that I would work off of for the final designs for the park’s winter programming.

Design

Based on our discussion with the neighborhood, we developed two designs for winter programming within the existing layout of the park. The abundant open space within the existing park allowed for many different activities to take place within both designs. Both designs focused on winter beauty, fun, and community celebration.

Lighting, while not specifically designed in the aerial plans, was indicated as a key programming aspect, which would draw visitors during the long dark hours of winter. Many types of lighting could be displayed at Peavey Park, such as holiday lighting shows, artist-designed sculptures and projections, and large bonfires that would also provide warmth and communal gathering.

Space and infrastructure for recreation was well-provided for, including ice skating on ice rinks and ice trails, as well as hockey rinks, sledding on toboggan slides (due to the lack of hills in Peavey Park), and ski trails around the perimeter of the park. Visitors who wish to people watch or take part in the activities without putting on ice skates can walk along the boardwalk trail adjacent to the ice trail – here, bonfires and warming shelters take the edge off the cold and winter wind.

Food and gathering space was introduced to the park, especially on the north entrance near busy Franklin Avenue, with food trucks and booths for an outdoor winter market. Space for a sculpture park along Franklin would also serve to draw visitors into the park. A stage and open space within the center of the park would serve any winter festivals or events the neighborhood might want to hold in the park.

In my capstone project, I experimented with the design process to investigate how a highly-layered urban riverfront site with a rich historic past could be encountered via a trail system based on experiential qualities and historical narrative.

St. Anthony Falls is the birthplace of Minneapolis. In its former glory, the cataract had a magnetic power that drew spiritual seekers and pioneering industry men alike. On the site of the former eastern portion of these falls, we find the overgrown bluffs, murky waterways, and mill ruins of Pillsbury Park. Adjacent to the park is Hennepin Island, the epicenter of river industries that have significantly altered the landscape as they sought to harness the physical power of St. Anthony Falls.

The site’s historical and cultural significance makes it an important landscape within the heritage district of downtown Minneapolis. It offers unique views of historic structures along the river, the downtown skyline, active industry on the river, and St. Anthony Falls. However current access to this important landscape is limited and the physical remains of its industry and ecology have been neglected. Tensions between movement and connection, access and restriction, historic uses and current uses, and abandonment and care make this an extremely complex site. With its layers of new and old infrastructure, Hennepin Island and Pillsbury Park are physical records of our historic exploration, use, and understanding of the power of water. As a unique site on a historic riverfront, they offer an opportunity to experience the many forms of the power of the river, as witnessed in the landscape itself.

My analysis process focused on understanding the history and the experiential qualities of the site. I developed a process of analyzing the site composition in terms of landscape features and layers, as well as the experiential qualities and movement through the site. My design process worked off this analysis, and included defining a sense of place, discovering new experiential typologies, outlining spatial and experiential concepts, and constructing a path system typology.

My vision for this site is that Pillsbury Park + Hennepin Island will be part of a larger East Bank experience in which the power of the Mississippi River is celebrated. Visitors will explore the site through exciting paths that provide a variety of experiences of the river and the river’s history.

In the final plan, an abandoned power plant becomes the Water Power Museum, which serves as an anchor to the east bank. The Pillsbury ‘A’ Mill re-opens the abandoned mill races under Main Street to provide hydroelectric and hydrothermal power to the new complex of buildings. Some of the water from this tailrace is rerouted into the park to reintroduce water to the location of the former east falls. A Highlights Loop trail off the park’s main entrance provides a quick look at the most interesting features in the park. The Water Power Heritage Loop, connecting to the Heritage Trail, provides an experience of all features of the site, stopping at points that provide views of the river and historic features. Several underground tailraces and historic tunnels are opened up for tours offered through the Water Power Museum. Hennepin Island is made accessible not only for picnicking and hiking, but would also function as flexible space for temporary exhibitions related to Xcel, the Stream Lab, or more artistic expressions related to the river.

In this urban design studio project, site performance was offered as a “premise for restructuring both site- and regional-scale systems”. Working with this concept, I explored how new municipal waste management practices could transform three underutilized parking lots in downtown Minneapolis into multiuse public spaces dedicated to reuse and production.

Current municipal waste management practices are based on the idea that waste is composed of materials that have a beginning and an end. In this mindset, our waste is collected, sorted, and disposed of in various locations, such as incinerator and landfills. As we progress in our understanding and implementation of sustainable waste management practices in the future, we will discover that that waste is a resource that can be used, reused, and modified to make other materials. Materials will be reused as many times as possible and then transformed into something else after they are no longer usable, rather than being buried or burned. With this view of the future in mind, I analyzed the flow, distribution, and lifecycle of materials that take place in the system as it currently exists and then imagined how these practices could change in the future. I proposed three phases of waste management, in which the site provides the facilities and processes to manage waste for all of the residents the neighborhood of Downtown Minneapolis East.

Using a flexible modular unit, a 40-yard dumpster, allowed me to work directly with the metrics of waste management by calculating how much waste my site could handle. It also allowed me to explore different typologies of use: how many different ways can a dumpster be modified to accommodate different uses as my site changes over time?

In the first phase of transforming the site, the parking lots cease to function for parking and become neighborhood-scale waste drop-off and transfer stations. Rows of dumpsters separate and store waste, which is dropped off by neighborhood residents. Waste trucks arrive every week on Trash Day to parade the waste down Nicollet Mall. Waste is then delivered to appropriate destination (incinerator, landfill, or a recycling center) in keeping with the current waste management practices.

In the second phase, the waste drop-off and transfer stations increasingly become site of reuse and production. The rows of dumpsters, fitted with air pipes, become an aerated static pile compost system. Between the rows of compost, access corridors allow both recreation and vehicular access for the composting process, and linear parks with native plantings form beautiful gardens that manage stormwater and mitigate urban heat island effect. Some dumpsters are modified as booths for an Exchange Market or covered bike parking.

By the third and final phase, waste levels are greatly reduced due to reuse, recycling, and new consumer practices. The site is now used for production of food, energy, and materials. Open space on site allows for recreation and transportation areas, infused with new civic spaces. An anaerobic digestor is concealed and integrated within a four-story retail/office building, treating biodegradable waste and generating compost, heat, fuel, and electricity. The building houses services related to reusing and repairing unwanted items, and renting items. Dumpsters become seating decks in front of the Minneapolis Public Library, artificial rock surfaces for outdoor rock climbing park, edges for a skate park, or in-ground planters for community gardens. Others get stacked up to create the walls of the transportation and recreation buildings.

As a design assistant at the Metropolitan Design Center in the summer of 2009, I was asked to analyze design alternatives for a small urban park in downtown Minneapolis. Triangle Park is a small wedge of land located between the on- and off-ramps for Highway 35W, and serves as both a visual gateway for vehicles entering downtown and also as a small greenspace for the neighborhood. Architect Ralph Rapson’s original 1975 design for the park has been altered and the park is in a state of deterioration.

Working with designers from CLOSE Landscape Architecture+, I analyzed the park to understand the complex layers of the site and the current experience of the park. We formed a design thinking process to analyze the existing opportunities and limitations of the park and put together a series of design options to transform the park’s conditions. Two final conceptual design options were offered. In one plan, the existing site design is enhanced through additional seating along the street and allee paths that led to an upper lawn. The second plan focuses on creating a connection to the street and providing a visible downtown gateway; a series of raised terraces draw visitors into the park, and lighted walls and an iconic sculpture create a dramatic entrance to the city.

In July of 2009, I presented our analysis, design options, and conceptual design plans to the Friends of Triangle Park, a non-profit neighborhood group invested in the revitalization of Triangle Park as a neighborhood amenity. The project has since been moving forward through presentations to various interested political parties.

Project Description

Vermillion Highlands is a 2800 acre future regional park. In our group I designed the trailhead and interpretive center, which were to be located on the top of a large hill. I explored how the spaces would interact with topography and circulation. By siting the interpretive center on the southern side of the hill and the trailhead on the top – featuring expansive views – it became the perfect place to become oriented to the landscape and learn about the historic and scientific significance of the park. I designed the road to curve around the topography, giving visitors varying views around the hill and injecting the drive to the interpretive center with mystery and a sense of destination. Pathways through the parking lots lead visitors through different landscapes on their way to the center. At the trailhead, skiers, equestrians, and hikers find amenities and an interpretive viewing platform.

The interpretive viewing platform, Lone Rock Lookout, at the trailhead informs visitors of the cultural history of the site, both literally and representationally. From the platform one can see across the landscape toward the park’s main geological feature: Lone Rock. A ramp allows accessibility to all visitors. Around the platform are materials that function both as climbing and sitting areas, and as material representations of one of the historical residents of the site. The grass-covered terraces represent the farming traditions. The boulder cascade represents the Dakota tribe because of its reference to Lone Rock which was a sacred site to them. This also provides an alternate climbing area since there is no climbing on the real feature. The metal wall “cutout” on the end of the platform represents the history of industry, and functions as a physical form of displacement.

Project Description

The Southeast courtyard outside of Rapson Hall on the University campus is designed to provide seasonal interest to those in the space, those looking into the space, and those walking by the space. Because the largest population of people use the campus in the fall, winter, and spring, plants were chosen not only for their form but also for their fall color, blooming time (spring or fall), long-lasting seedhead, and winter form and color.

The sunny inner space within the courtyard was designed to accommodate about 25 people, with the intent of using the space for both educational and recreational (relaxation) purposes.