Great cities are defined by great places. It is the avenues, squares, grand halls and, of course, the people who inhabit them that give a city its character. A unique blend of architecture, open space, transit, infrastructure, history, culture, and art, the Interchange represents an exciting vision of this character manifest in an urban environment. The goal for the Interchange is to create a place that is uniquely tailored to Minneapolis and its citizens—a place that is iconic, modern, and timeless. It will fulfill people’s aspirations for clean and efficient transportation while also serving as a proud calling card for those who call the city and metro area their home.
The Interchange will serve as the main transportation hub for the northern Minneapolis region. Situated a few blocks from the banks of the Mississippi River, the new station will connect approximately 500 arriving and departing trains daily, more than 1,900 daily bus routes, and hundreds of miles of bike and walking trails. This bold transit project is the result of a partnership between Hennepin County, the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority, and the Hennepin County Housing and Redevelopment Authority. It is funded by a mix of federal, state, and local sources, more than half of which comes from local government. During the construction phase, the Interchange will create more than 300 full-time local jobs. The design-build team is being led by EE&K a Perkins Eastman company and Knutson Construction.
Open Transit Design
History has taught us that the design visionaries behind the truly great transit destinations intended to create an infrastructure that functioned beyond as a transit hub. These projects used transit as a vehicle to design iconic spaces—the great hall, the retail passages, and the city sightlines that embody the culture of a city—while creating enormous real estate value. And this is what the City of Minneapolis and surrounding Hennepin County were trying to achieve with the Interchange. Designed by EE&K, a Perkins Eastman company, this nexus of transit and culture is based on a set of design principles called "Open Transit" that have been developed over the last 15 years.
Open Transit is a set of principles for modern station design that incorporate the surrounding spaces and additional modes of transportation to create an overall iconic place. If we are to make cities more sustainable we need to create transit places that will also sustain and enhance urban life and foster development. The Interchange exemplifies this concept in several ways: integration of all available transit modes, an orientation toward real estate development, architectural design that make places, and the integration of culture with transit design. The station will function as a backdrop to performance stage and appeal for non-transit users—people want to be there even if they aren’t using transit.
Making Development the Priority
The design of the Interchange is compact and connects seamlessly with the façade of Target Field, home to the Minnesota Twins baseball team. With such a modest footprint, the Interchange opens up the remainder of the site to maximize development opportunities. By leveraging the value of the 6th Avenue/5th Street intersection, this new development and subsequent ones within the site will help create a key link between the historic North Loop neighborhood and downtown Minneapolis. The Interchange will be a model for how transit design can stimulate economic development and foster environmental stewardship.
Transit centers designed according to the principles of Open Transit are development-oriented, meaning they catalyze investment in a region as much as they follow it. One of the current challenges of the site that the Interchange addresses is the massive influx of people to the area since the introduction of Target Field, which opened in 2010. And the opportunities it creates are even greater than the problems it solves. The team behind the Interchange explored at length how to integrate existing amenities into one new place that capitalized on a new transit line.
As a result, the hub will comprise the Cascade Amphitheater, a Great Lawn, and commuter-oriented retail. Each will provide the community with numerous programming possibilities that will serve the immediate and surrounding area year-round. The cascading staircase that can be used as an amphitheater, gathering space, and vertical transportation to the Great Lawn will draw people from all over for a relaxing picnic or a quiet respite from the bustle of city life.
The Interchange will create a new emblem of civic identity and community pride in its mix of uses by introducing the first of a new generation of facilities that truly integrate transit and culture. Like Grand Central in New York City, it will draw tourists, workers, shoppers and diners. As an oasis in a part of the city where large-scale freeway infrastructure collides with the historic grand warehouses of the North Loop neighborhood, it will fundamentally change Minneapolis and catalyze future development in the area.
Seamless Sustainability
The Interchange in Minneapolis pushes the lessons of Open Transit design even further with a holistic approach to the building as an environmentally responsible community member. It aims to help sustain Minneapolis's urban revival by incorporating features like rainwater collection for irrigation and building use, and a symbiotic use of water with recycling trash. The LEED-certified and Minnesota State-recognized B3 accredited development will use heat from the nearby Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC) to heat sidewalks in the winter months. All concrete removed from the existing site will be re-incorporated back into the project, helping to curb costs related to trucking and the procurement of imported crushed rock. The new HERC administration building on the site is being designed with energy-efficient components, which will cut overall energy consumption by 30%.
Open Transit design represents the future of sustainable transit development in America’s vibrant urban centers, re-envisioning and refashioning the best of the past for the future. The Interchange in Minneapolis will be one of the most efficient demonstrations in the United States of how transportation can integrate with commerce and culture to create rich development opportunities.
Construction on the Interchange continues on schedule, and the project will open in April of 2014.
Related Stories
Biophilic Design | May 18, 2022
Horticulturalists conduct research study to understand the value of biophilic design
Benholm Group, horticulturalists that have pioneered the use of plants for interiors over the past 27 years, are collaborating on a research study to understand the value of biophilic design, according to a news release.
Market Data | May 18, 2022
Architecture Billings Index moderates slightly, remains strong
For the fifteenth consecutive month architecture firms reported increasing demand for design services in April, according to a new report today from The American Institute of Architects (AIA).
Building Team | May 18, 2022
Bjarke Ingels-designed KING Toronto releases its final set of luxury penthouses
In April 2020, a penthouse at KING Toronto sold for $16 million, the highest condo sale in Toronto that year or the year after.
Building Team | May 17, 2022
MKA’s Embodied Carbon Action Plan will include reporting on carbon reductions for selected projects
Magnusson Klemencic Associates (MKA) recently released its SE 2050 Embodied Carbon Action Plan (ECAP) for 2022.
University Buildings | May 16, 2022
Yale’s newly renovated Schwarzman Center enriches student campus social life
Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA) recently unveiled the design of their restoration of the Schwarzman Center at Yale University, which includes dining spaces, a bar, and a food shop.
K-12 Schools | May 16, 2022
Private faculty offices are becoming a thing of the past at all levels of education
Perkins & Will’s recent design projects are using the area to encourage collaboration.
Codes and Standards | May 16, 2022
AIA releases Justice in the Built Environment guide
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) recently published a new supplementary edition of the Guides for Equitable Practice, titled “Justice in the Built Environment.”
K-12 Schools | May 16, 2022
A Quaker high school in Maryland is the first in the U.S. to get WELL Gold certification
Designed by Stantec, a Quaker high school is the first in the US to receive WELL Gold certification, which recognizes a commitment to occupants’ health and well-being.
Building Team | May 13, 2022
Glass penthouses rise above Toronto’s tree line
In midtown Toronto, the nine-story midrise building Leaside Common has released its Penthouse Collection: two-floor penthouses that take inspiration from Philip Johnson’s Glass House in Connecticut.
Market Data | May 12, 2022
Monthly construction input prices increase in April
Construction input prices increased 0.8% in April compared to the previous month, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Producer Price Index data released today.