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
| Aug 11, 2010
Green consultant guarantees LEED certification or your money back
With cities mandating LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for public, and even private, buildings in growing numbers, an Atlanta-based sustainability consulting firm is hoping to ease anxieties over meeting those goals with the industry’s first Green Guaranteed.
| Aug 11, 2010
Architecture Billings Index bounces back after substantial dip
Exhibiting a welcome rebound following a 5-point dip the month prior, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) was up almost 6 points in July. As a leading economic indicator of construction activity, the ABI reflects the approximate nine to twelve month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the July ABI rating was 43.1, up noticeably from 37.7 the previous month.
| Aug 11, 2010
Rafael Vinoly-designed East Wing opens at Cleveland Museum of Art
Rafael Vinoly Architects has designed the new East Wing at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), Ohio, which opened to the public on June 27, 2009. Its completion marks the opening of the first of three planned wings.
| Aug 11, 2010
National Association of Governors adopts AIA policy of reaching carbon neutrality in buildings by 2030
As part of their comprehensive national Energy Conservation and Improved Energy Efficiency policy, the National Association of Governors (NGA) has adopted the promotion of carbon neutral new and renovated buildings by 2030 as outlined by the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
| Aug 11, 2010
Installation work begins on Minnesota's largest green roof
Installation of the 2.5 acre green roof vegetation on the City-owned Target Center begins today. Over the course of two days a 165 ton crane will hoist five truckloads of plant material, which includes 900 rolls of pre-grown vegetated mats of sedum and native plants for installation on top of the arena's main roof.
| Aug 11, 2010
AASHE releases annual review of sustainability in higher education
The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) has announced the release of AASHE Digest 2008, which documents the continued rapid growth of campus sustainability in the U.S. and Canada. The 356-page report, available as a free download on the AASHE website, includes over 1,350 stories that appeared in the weekly AASHE Bulletin last year.
| Aug 11, 2010
AECOM, Arup, Gensler most active in commercial building design, according to BD+C's Giants 300 report
A ranking of the Top 100 Commercial Design Firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
AIA approves Sika Sarnafil’s continuing education courses offering sustainable design credits
Two continuing education courses offered by Sika Sarnafil have been approved by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and are now certified to fulfill the AIA’s new Sustainable Design continuing education requirements.
| Aug 11, 2010
HNTB, Arup, Walter P Moore among SMPS National Marketing Communications Awards winners
The Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) is pleased to announce the 2009 recipients of the 32nd Annual National Marketing Communications Awards (MCA). This annual competition is the longest-standing, most prestigious awards program recognizing excellence in marketing and communications by professional services firms in the design and building industry.
