RFQ submission deadline: 13 October 2010

Description: Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) and Minneapolis Parks Foundation, along with creative partners The University of Minnesota College of Design and Walker Art Center, are sponsoring a design competition addressing Minneapolis’ Upper Riverfront, the area extending from the Stone Arch Bridge to Minneapolis’ northern city limits, along both sides of the Mississippi River. This project builds on the MPRB award-winning 2000 master plan and is the first demonstration project of The Minneapolis Parks Foundation’s “Next Generation of Parks”—a design-driven vision for a 21st century park system.

The competition will investigate new opportunities for connectivity, sustainability, infrastructure and public space along the upper riverfront and extending into the surrounding neighborhoods.

The competition encourages a comprehensive, integrated approach to evaluating the larger river/park system, creating a vision that:

• Establishes parks as the engine for economic development along the river;
• Knits both sides of the riverfront together with their surrounding communities, thereby transforming the river from a barrier to a connector;
• Re-focuses the city toward one of the three great rivers of the world—the Fourth Coast of the U.S.—an extraordinary environmental amenity that defines Minneapolis’ civic identity, past, present and future.

Awards: Four teams will be short-listed and awarded $30,000 for design and travel. Winning team will be awarded a commission.

Website: http://MinneapolisRiverfrontDesignCompetition.com

Contact:
Mary deLaittre, Project Manager
Minneapolis Riverfront Design Competition
http://minneapolisriverfrontdesigncompetition.com