The Mississippi River in St. Paul has been called many things, but widely accessible isn’t one of them.
Besides motorized boats and some prime views, the river winds through the capital city as more of a backdrop than a destination for many. The lack of public-facing facilities – think canoe launches, restaurants, boardwalks and nature centers compared to other river cities – has gone unnoticed by major river partners.
“We are really trying to move the city to the river, which is one of the three great rivers in the world,” said Mary Delighter, executive director of the Great River Passage Conservancy, the city’s primary fundraising partner for the river projects. Is.” “But there aren’t many places to go to drink and get down and touch him.”
The Conservancy has joined St. Paul Parks and Recreation in the process of designing a river learning center in a 25-acre section of Crosby Farms Park south of Shepard Road and east of the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers .
Designers with New York’s W Architecture and Landscape Architecture shared three possible concept drawings during an open house at Watergate Marina this month, a boat landing that stemmed directly from alterations to two existing man-made bays dredged in the 1950s. will be affected.
“The whole area is in disarray. It was reconfigured in the past,” said Anne Gardner, a landscape architect and project manager with St. Paul’s Parks & RE. With the goal of increased natural habitat and native plantings, the new island “remains what it was in the past.” will repeat.”
Connecting Crosby Farms to Hidden Falls
The project is expected to link the ends of Crosby Farms Regional Park and Hidden Falls Regional Park, while increasing opportunities for non-motorized boaters.
“It’s something as much as a reconfiguration of the shape of the bay, where one can actually comfortably locate a building there,” Delighter said.
The three plans – bridge, path and destination – detail how visitors can reach the river from the existing bluff, where buses and cars can drop off visitors, and whether the marina will have to shrink slightly – all details vary with each option. Is.
By dredging a narrow channel between two creeks, an existing peninsula-like land can be turned into an island. A lift or canopy walk can connect the bluffs to the riverfront, or take visitors to the nature center’s terrace.
“We are in the early stages of schematic design,” Gardner said. By the fall, the city is expected to unveil a general concept plan, fundraising options and a possible price tag.
Gardner emphasizes that the general representations for bridge, path and destination bring a variety of possible features to the table. The public can pick and choose which elements they like from each scheme. A public survey ends on June 24 and has already attracted over 100 respondents.
To date, Delighter said, six partners are already onboard. This includes the National Park Service, which will be one of the major tenants of the River Learning Center, along with new marina managers from the Mississippi Park Connection River Friends Group, the non-profit outdoor education organization Wilderness Inquiry and Your Boat Club.
The city will be the owner of the project and the site.
Each plan includes walkways, bike connections, picnic areas, educational landscapes, and canoe launches. The three concept designs include:
Bridge
Just off Shepard Road, the Nature Center’s tower-like structure, built over a river bluff, will create a view for the entire Bay Area, not unlike how the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Downtown River Bluff in St. Paul’s It overlooks the Mississippi River. A vertical lift or stair will bring visitors down from the nature center to the park.
“The purpose of the bridge is to have an above-high and bottom-low connection – a bridge between the Upper Community, the neighborhood of Sheppard Road, and the underwater area where the marina sits,” Gardner said.
Way
Instead of the massive reception center facilities within a sizable nature center, the path will house them in two smaller structures – one above the river and a smaller building closer to the riverbank. The two centers will be connected by an elevated walkway or “canopy walk”, possibly leading to the roof of the river structure. A National Park Service reception centre, bus and vehicle drop-offs and other shared services will be located atop the bluff in the building, to reduce impact near the water.
“The path has multiple buildings, split offices, programming and storage spaces,” Gardner said.
The existing peninsula will be converted into an island by dredging a channel between the two creeks. The marina will continue to be its current size.
Destination
Imagine that a building standing taller than the bridge is leaning on its side and reaches the bank of the river. The result will be a tall horizontal structure overlooking the water directly. The marina will shrink slightly, and bus and vehicle parking will be located at the nature center. The peninsula will become an island.
“The destination is one storey outside the floodplain near the riverbank, because a structure close to the river can be located sensitively given floodplain restrictions,” Gardner said.
An elevated skywalk starting at the bluff will descend through the existing tree canopy and lead visitors to the river, ending in the general vicinity of the center of the river.
