Envision what the northwest corner of Lagoon and Hennepin will look like after 2014. Construction of a new library was given a green light by the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners. The Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board approved conceptual plans for the park area north of the library. The library replacement is included in the County’s budget so planning will move forward. Funding for the Mall park area has not yet been identified. Since the Mall will be used for staging during library construction it will have to be restored creating an opportunity for improvement. The goal is to integrate the new library with surrounding public places including the Mall, the Uptown Transit Station, a future light rail transit station down in the Midtown Greenway and Hennepin Avenue. Conceptual plans for both grew out of a series of public meetings that gathered ideas from the community. The library design is by VJAA Architects; the Mall design is by Close Landscape Architecture.
For further information contact Jennifer Ringold at the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board, jringold@minneapolisparks.org, 612.230.6464 or Lois Enroot-Ernt at the Hennepin County Library llenroot@hclib.org, 952.847.8555.
Comment