The bi-coastal urban and landscape design team TLS/KVA-Tom Leader Studio (Berkeley) and Kennedy and Violich Architecture (Boston)-were named the winning design team of the Minneapolis Riverfront Design Competition just last week. RIVERFIRST stood out as particularly well suited to the Upper Riverfront in Minneapolis. The team grounded their proposal in proactive outreach to the community, demonstrated extensive research, and posited several multi-layered solutions unique to these 11 miles of riverfront and the habitat, communities, businesses, infrastructure, and culture intrinsic to the region. More images and project description after the break.
The TLS/KVA RIVERFIRST proposal offers a comprehensive remediation of the city’s storm water management system and its conceptual transformation into a system of ‘tributaries’ that are naturally cleaned with planted bio‐filtration landscapes and returned to the river. The topography of the RIVERFIRST design is guided by the dynamics of the river. Where water scours and erodes, carving design principles are used to create water remediation ravines and terrace overlooks on the northeast bluffs. Where the river deposits new material, accretive principles of design are used to mold and shape land berms for the new park.
