Community members can help inform artistic designs that will go into each Central Corridor light rail station.
The Metropolitan Council is asking for input from the public about what defines the locale for each light rail station.
Coming up next is a community meeting on March 1, to get feedback on the area surrounding the planned Western Avenue station in St. Paul. The Metropolitan Council has been holding
meetings on a station-by-station basis. People can also comment online.
Early design concepts will be presented in the coming weeks, according to council information.
Construction of the 11-mile Central Corridor, which will connect the downtowns of St. Paul and Minneapolis, starts in March. The line is planned to open in 2014.
Laura Baenen, a spokesperson for the project, says the council wants to hear from people about the area's heritage, culture, and history, or, "something significant to the area, what it's known for."
The community's input will be "food for thought in the creative process," she says.
For example, in a public meeting earlier this month about the Victoria Street station, the Rondo neighborhood's historic ties to the railroads and silent movies came up.
Ice castles are being worked into the 10th Street station design, paying homage to long-ago ice palaces, Baenen says, and the oak trees near the Fairview Avenue stop will show up through some kind of an oak-and-acorn motif.
Creative ideas will be integrated into the station design from the beginning, unlike many projects in which artist-designed pavers or handrails are added as decorations. Art "won't be an afterthought," says Baenen. "It won't be attached later."
Whatever the form, it needs to stand up to the elements. "We want it to be both functional and durable," she says.
Source: Laura Baenen, Central Corridor spokesperson
Writer: Anna Pratt