Howard Dahlgren was 'guru of planners' in Twin Cities

If not for architect and city planning pioneer Howard Dahlgren, Burnsville might not have been.

Dahlgren, of Golden Valley, headed consulting firms in the Twin Cities, and in the early 1960s he was involved in a plan pushed successfully at the Legislature to keep Bloomington from annexing the old Burnsville Township.

Dahlgren, who was 83, died of esophageal cancer Oct. 31 in Golden Valley.

From 1960 to 1990, he headed firms that became Dahlgren, Shardlow and Uban.

When he was a teenager, he drew maps for Scott County, and after graduation from Shakopee High School in 1943, his mapmaking skills came in handy when he served as a reconnaissance officer during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.

He received a bachelor's degree in architecture in the mid-1950s from the University of Minnesota. After a stint with a Minneapolis architectural firm, he completed graduate studies in city planning in Liverpool, England, where his student work was later used in a city project.

During his career, he also was a consultant for cities such as Mendota Heights, Brainerd, Grand Rapids and Roseville.

In Roseville, he was a key player in the development of the Rosedale Shopping Center and the innovator of an area that became known as "Restaurant Row" there. He had the idea that a County Road B2 bridge over Interstate 35W would facilitate development.

"Things I do today are based on a lot of the stuff I learned from him," said Waldron.

In 1970, the Metropolitan Transit Commission began studying the feasibility of a light-rail system in the Twin Cities, and Dahlgren was a part of the planning team.

He studied other cities' transit systems and attended dozens of public meetings in the Twin Cities. He found the idea of a transit system was popular, said Phil Carlson of St. Paul, a planner with the Bonestroo engineering and planning firm in Roseville, the successor of Dahlgren's firm.

Dahlgren said in the October 2006 newsletter, Minnesota Planning, "If we had decided on that plan in 1972 ... we would have had one of the finest transit systems in the U.S."

"We did our best for him," Carlson said.

In 1976, he bought an old paddlewheel boat. With the help of his children, he rebuilt it, making it into a replica of a 19th century paddlewheeler.

He docked the John Theodore D at the St. Paul Yacht Club and annually took the public out for boat rides, raising money for charity.

"He just loved that boat," said his daughter, Karen Dahlgren, of Golden Valley.

In addition to Karen, Dahlgren is survived by his wife of 60 years, Lois, of Golden Valley; and daughters Marty Klann of Rochester, N.Y., Nora of Minneapolis and Anni Johnson, of Edina, and six grandchildren.