Photos: Student projects arranged downtown, courtesy of Streetscape Lab 2014
Can innovative street furniture improve the way people perceive downtown?
That was the question at the heart of a recent collaboration between the Downtown Improvement District and the University of Minnesota College of Design, which tasked undergraduate students working in an empty City Center retail space to activate public space and solve problems for downtown pedestrians.
Their rough prototypes were put to a field test for several weeks to see how the public would react. The projects included a standing counter for the food truck lunch crowd, free wooden chairs on Nicollet Mall, a hose spraying mist at hot pedestrians, signs featuring walking and biking times to local destinations and a wiffle ball field in Peavey Plaza.
"In many cases in downtown Minneapolis… a public place is less successful because of how it's designed or programmed or the adjacent uses," said Ben Shardlow, the director of public realm initiatives at the DID, which is funded through assessments on downtown properties. "And in some cases, it's because the street furniture that's there is configured in such a way that it doesn't work. Or, in more cases, it's because there's nothing there. There's no furniture, there's nowhere to sit, there's no greenery."
Shardlow said rather than try to refine the student prototypes into full-fledged models, they will use the findings to inform future designs about improving public space. Use of the counter, for example, will factor into future discussions about the facilities needed to support outdoor lunches downtown. Other collaborations downtown, such as a "parklot" on Hennepin Avenue, are supplying similar information.
"By making public places more livable and inviting, then it will increase use of those spaces," Shardlow said. "And fostering more positive activity is crucial in creating safe, lively public places."
After arranging their projects, students watched from a distance how people interacted with them. Tom Oliphant, one of the course instructors, said it was thrilling to see pedestrians extend their hand to grab some mist from a hose arranged near Peavey Plaza.