We are two of the three members of the team originally selected at a very public meeting chaired by Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak last November to develop proposals for Peavey Plaza's revitalization. As you might know, that didn't work out, and our later exclusion has become a sideshow. Our agenda in writing this article is to do what is right for Peavey Plaza. Our motives are not financial -- we support the plaza's revitalization, but not just mere lip service to its past.
So, let's move on and talk about the core issue -- process.
The city and the Minnesota Orchestra, we and others believe, have subverted the Peavey redesign process, effectively shutting out meaningful public discourse and debate, and they must be held accountable. Important to this discussion is the fact that early on, lead landscape architect Tom Oslund and we collectively decided that full restoration was not viable -- got that? -- and we embarked on developing new options. The city felt similarly, as evidenced by a staff presentation Oct. 25 before joint committees of the City Council. Yet that option never went away.
The city's Krista Bergert sent bullet points Oct. 18 to Minnesota Public Radio's Marianne Combs, among them this revealing one:
"The City and Orchestra have held two open houses to date to ask for public comments on the design of the plaza, and we received many. In June the CEC [Community Engagement Committee] was shown four design schemes, a preservation scheme, a hybrid option and two new schemes. We received comments on all the schemes. Subsequent to that meeting, the Review Committee limited the options to preservation or new design. On August 23, the Review Committee voted to go with a new design option."
That statement prompts the following observations and questions:
•The public is essentially being told that restoration and design are adversarial and incompatible. But they aren't. New York City's High Line is a brilliant example of design and restoration.
•The Orchestral Association organized that democratic-sounding Community Engagement Committee and decided who was invited to participate and who was excluded.