Over the past 30 years, the
St. Anthony Falls Historic District in Minneapolis, which testifies to the city's origin in milling and trade and includes the Mississippi River's main waterfall, has seen marked changes.
Developments have sprung up and ideas about preservation have evolved. No longer is restoration simply about saving and reusing buildings or properties, while there's more information about the area's history now than there was only a few decades ago.
Accordingly, the historic district's 1980 design guidelines have gotten out of date. They're limited in that they only address "architectural standards for new building construction based on a series of discrete sub-districts" and don't account for the falls and the river and other landscape features, plus archaeology and industrial uses, according to city information.
In response, the city is
calling for professional services to help get new guidelines in place that are in keeping with the times and take a more holistic view of the area.
Brian Schaffer, a senior city planner for Minneapolis, explains via email that the new design guidelines will provide a framework to evaluate alterations and new construction within the district, which is historic according to local, state, and federal standards.
The guidelines will help "evaluate and review project proposals such as the restoration of the falls or the construction of new buildings," he says, citing several projects underway along the riverfront, including a proposal to reinterpret the falls on the river's eastern edge. As they come up, "proposed projects would have to comply with the regulations developed in the new design guidelines," he says.
Source: Brian Schaffer, senior city planner for Minneapolis
Writer: Anna Pratt