How cities are revitalizing metropolitan landscapes. WRITER Megan Gosch
A small office tucked away in the basement of the University of Minnesota’s College of Design is buzzing with activity. Ignacio San Martin is oblivious to the commotion around him. Separated by a wall of glass, San Martin is consumed by the designs laid out before him, cluttering his desk and worktables. San Martin, an architecture professor at the University of Minnesota, Dayton Hudson Chair of Urban Design, and Director of the Metropolitan Design Center, has been working with a team of urban designers, community leaders, and city officials to develop the Urban Design Framework proposal for the University District Alliance. The Alliance is made up of the Como, Marcy Holmes, Prospect Park, and Cedar-Riverside neighborhoods surrounding the University of Minnesota’s campus. The aim is to develop unused and inaccessible riverfront property. As he runs his fingers through his graying curly hair and smoothes his thick mustache, San Martin’s face brightens as he finds the words. “In order for a city to succeed, we need to completely rethink the way we’ve been doing things. We absolutely, without a doubt, must rethink everything we thought we knew about urban design,” he says. “Our innovation will determine the success of our city’s future.”
Patrick O’Leary
All the Wrong Ideas According to San Martin, our cities
have been built based on all the wrong ideas. “They’ve been built around ideas of expediency, industry, and efficiency only. It’s not surprising that this model is failing us now,” he says. Many of America’s once-thriving cities were developed around a defining industry with specific economic interests. This industry-focused strategy failed to account for the cultural and aesthetic elements that allow a city and its residents to thrive. Detroit has become a prime example of the nation’s economic downturn due to failed structural development. The city once boomed where the auto industry was born, and Detroit grew to be the nation’s fourth largest city by the 1950s. Production soon became the main focus of the area’s growth and development. But, as oil prices inflated and markets moved toward international auto imports, Detroit began to crumble in the 1960s. The city’s population since then has drastically diminished, and those who did not move, suffered from unemployment, poverty, and mass foreclosure. Because Detroit’s industrial production was so integral to its culture, landscape, and economy, little was left to keep the city alive once industry recession hit full-force. The structure from which Detroit was built—a structure that has left the city virtually an industrial graveyard—also plagued dozens of other American cities like Cleveland and New Orleans. remademagazine.sjmc.umn.edu
Building a Sustainable Structure The forward-thinking
nature of Twin Cities development projects has kept the area from complete disrepair like other cities that have fallen victim to bankruptcy, unemployment, and failed industry structures. This proactive problem solving attempts to build elements that San Martin and other urban designers find to be the key to a successful city: diverse cultural identity, public spaces, effective transportation, and ecological opportunities. According to San Martin, each of these elements works to appease what is most important in cities—the people. Although Minneapolis and Saint Paul have not experienced the disrepair seen in Detroit, projects of progress and recreation have been implemented to make the Twin Cities a vibrant, sustainable metropolis. Cultural Identity A city’s identity is constantly in flux with its
residents. San Martin says that’s a good thing. “If people are the most important thing about cities, the landscape, the resources, and everything needs to reflect the people,” San Martin says. “Their interests, desires, and needs must all be accounted for.” The Twin Cities’ most successful transformation was the creation of the Midtown Global Market. The market, which was built within a vacant Sears building on Minneapolis’ Lake Street, opened in 2006 as a gathering space for local entrepreneurs to house their budding businesses. Since opening, the market has blossomed into a mecca for ethnic goods and community events. The project has been nationally recognized as a successful revitalization project. Midtown Global Market met the needs of current residents by adapting to the area’s new immigrant populations. “The market shows the best of who we are today and what we can accomplish,” says Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, who led the project. “From the start, we wanted to create something that would help entrepreneurs who lacked support and builds off the neighborhood as it exists today.” In addition to its unique wares, the market has created a safer, healthier neighborhood, provided opportunity for the financial success of young entrepreneurs, boosted the local economy, and employed local residents. “The market has allowed this neighborhood to grow economically and culturally,” Rybak says. “It’s become a one-of-a-kind collaboration that represents a one-of-akind city—a new Minneapolis.”
Ignacio San Martin
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