Downtown Freeway System

Vrrrm. Vrrrm. We’re going Downtown.
I believe I have what could be the best plan for a direct link from the interstate to downtown. As I thought about the problem, I always wondered what would be the best approach to take. I was trying to look for an approach that would be minimal on the destruction of residential areas, especially of historical value. Just that one criteria alone was enough to drive me mad as I tried to identify a North-South passage from I-94 to downtown. Unfortunately folks, it’s not going to happen in my life time. As one user said on the SSP forums, it would be tide up in court for years with never ending NIMBYism. So, I looked to another route. I believe I’ve identified a possible East-West approach. I looked at the residential and commercial unit which would have to be demolished and this appears to minimize that.

The Clearing
I believe that eventually, due to it’s growth and prosperity, NDSU will become so large it will need to obtain all land south of the University which is north of 7^th Ave, west of University, and east of the northern railroad yard. A strip of land included in that is the “Apartment Row” along Dakota Drive (or 8^th Ave as some call it). When you look at this section of town, it’s the most run-down and desolate excuse of residences. There are 3 brand new apartment buildings, but I’m willing to let go of them for this to work. If you use that strip of land, you can place an 8 lane interstate system in that spot and have a convenient link to the western half of downtown. If you were to build it here, you would also be able to have a direct link to the freeway from NDSU. Talk about convenience. Build a gigantic, but nice looking, parking garage and parking problems are solved for that park of the city.

The Western Trail
The interstate freeway would loop around the open area where the flood ditches are. There’s only a concrete silo and a few warehouse/industrial type businesses in the way. I’m sure if the offer was decent enough, none of them would object to having a nice plot in the Fargo Industrial Park. From this area you can access the downtown area through the 4 possible one way streets. I’ve marked them on the diagram below. Keep in mind, where I have drawn the orange road, that road doesn’t exist. It needs to be built. The other two streets I’ve marked as one ways further north can easily be turned into one ways that would go to the riverfront with the demolishing of two buildings and some street work. Not a hefty price at all for better access downtown.

Economic Boom
With direct freeway access downtown, I believe larger businesses will want to move downtown and possibly move into or construct their own highrises. With more and more businesses moving in, people will surely follow, as well as retail and other entertainment establishments. The possibilities are endless and current land owners next to the proposed freeway system of mine would be in line to make quite a killing financially.

I’ll continue on this next time, adding to the plan a possible Dinkytown like area and future NDSU.

(Click Image for Larger Version)


p.s. Keep in mind, I realize that some roads are now deadends and some other new issues may need to be addressed. But hey, I do what I can. Photoshop is my tool, not AutoCAD.

Downtown Fargo : "The Northern Front"

Grrrrrrrrr. Swingers Baby!

I got to thinking. Yes the Main Avenue Bridge is an important entrance of the downtown area to promote, however I don't think we can forget about, what I'll term "The Northern Front". This is the area as your driving right into downtown on University from the Campus. It's pretty bland. Just a bakery, a dairy queen, and other items. The other thing I thought was that it has always been an odd place to put a k-12 school. I really have no idea what that school is doing there kitty-corner to the Dairy Queen. Perhaps it would be better somewhere else.

Anyways, I'm predicting NDSU will grow by leaps and bounds. That includes the size of the campus in terms of expanding South. I'm specifically referring to the run down section of town directly south of NDSU (including that Ghetto Sunmart!!!). I think in 50 years, the campus will purchase all of that land and homes and just simply redevelop it into a much livelier area. I’m not going to expanded too much on it until tomorrow. But the point is, the campus and students will move closer to downtown.

So, in that corridor between downtown and the possible new campus boundaries, why doesn’t it get developed into a small Dinkytown like at UofM. Also there should be clubs and sports bars and other entertainment for those who are of age. I’m just tossing these ideas out there, and I’ll elaborate on them some more then.

Downtown Fargo : "The Front", Part II

A couple of items that I failed to mention in that plan included many items that tend to also appear alongside this type of development. Let's go over some of what I think would be appropriate here.

Retail
With the addition of several new towers that I proposed in the diagram below (one of them being 30-40 stories), it would be easy to incorporate retail on the first few floors of those buildings. Since they are all linked together through the common skyway system, you could have, in essence, a miniature mall, possibly approaching 40-50 shops. Of course, another possibility I can think of off the top of my head is using the area next to the Laskowitz Highrise, which I’ve specified to hold several high-rise residential towers, to have a base foot print of the entire lot, covered by a 2-3 storey shopping colonnade. Having that, plus the other retail on the first floors of many of the buildings, all connected by the skyway, would be something that could compete with West Acres.

Restaurants
While you could put several restaurants in with the retail establishments, you’d want to make sure that you also have 2-3 key or destination restaurants. It’s been suggested that a Planet Hollywood be one of those. I’m not quite sure, as it’s been mentioned before; it seems to have lost its charm over the last decade. I would think this should be local restaurants with top notch chefs and menus. It could be a little more high-end, but not outrageous. I’d even be happy if one of them served a 7 or 10 course meal for $65-$100 dollars, prepared by a chef of the liking and continually approaching the level of talent of Bobby Flay, Gordon Ramsey, etc…

I think if you were to combine these two principles, with the suggestions in the last post, you would have a winning combination, in a city with 400,000-500,000 people.

Downtown Fargo : "The Front"

I was chit-chatting with fellow posters on SSP last night and we got down to discussing what could be done with the area of downtown Fargo as you come over the Main Avenue Bridge. As you know, right now it's an eyesore, an embarrassment for the city. There's the heavy industrial site of Mid-American Steel, the dilapidated storage sheds and of course more and more broken down buildings than the eye can see.

The Idea

Steel In the Industrial Park
The below proposition is a spin off of what Smiley and FMisthebest have suggested. It starts with moving Mid-American Steel to its appropriate location in the Fargo Industrial Park. It would have proper train access as it currently requires and also have much more room to grow. Perhaps it could lead to spin off smaller businesses by relocating there as well. In order to move them, I’m sure there would have to be a financial package setup, because they aren’t going to willingly move themselves. At least I don’t think they are.

Trains Trains Trains
The other major hurdle would be to reroute ALL train traffic to the northern tracks on the other side of downtown. There is certainly room for additional tracks and I think it can be done without any business requiring train access, losing it. Once that is done the tracks can be ripped up and space can be cleared. Most properties along Main Avenue will double their usable size over night.

Art and Science
The first and arguably most costly project would be redoing the MidAmerican steel area to hold the to be soon constructed Metropolitan Performing Arts Center. I would envision this structure to be quite large and grand, as indicated in an earlier post. It would probably have a grand hall, medium hall, and smaller hall for different sized performances. It would also hold a majority of the metropolitan areas Fine Arts offices.

Right across the street from it to the west would be the new North Dakota Museum of Science and Industry. I think this structure could be a 4-5 storey tall behemoth. It would be on the scale of the one in Chicago or Minnesota Science Museum in St. Paul. But it would still have enough in terms of displays and activities to warrant a $12-$15 admission ticket. The building would also house an IMAX screen. The only one of its kind in North Dakota. It would fully engulf the audience in vivid motion imagery.

Reading and City Services
The next pieces include a newly constructed library. This will be a 4-5 storey building and should put anything else currently in the region to shame. It should easily have close to several million items in circulation and over several million yearly visits.

City Hall would receive a new building to allow for proper growth of the city. As the metropolitan area approaches 400,000-500,000 in population, I could easily see this building being between 10-15 stories.

The size of the Fargo Civic Center would be doubled to handle an ever increasing demand of space for smaller concerts and also trade shows, conventions and exhibits.

In between the civic services buildings would be a grand plaza and park, opening up straight up to the Red River. It would contain heavy uses of stone and landscaping. Enough care in the design would also be done to ensure limited affects on pedestrians as they cross streets going through the plaza.

Where Will They Live
The next group of developments includes several residential towers, in the ever increasing rush to meet the demand of people wanting to live downtown. The first tower is mainly for low/middle income families and individuals. This could easily be a 15-25 storey tower. I’ve placed it next to the MAT Bus Transfer Station for convenience of those who would mostly use the bus system as their primary mode of transportation.

The next residential towers are for those in the middle income range. I’m picturing 2-3 mid-rise towers just directly north of the Laskowitz High Rise and the also another taller one just north of the Performing Arts Center.

Wrapping It all Up
The final tower will be the premiere building in the region. Ranking in at around 30-40 stories and holding multiple uses for a decent Hotel, several floors of office space and finally the top remaining floors reserved for condos and penthouses, the tower will be a landmark. You will see it and people will say “oh that’s in Fargo, obviously.

Finally to address the growing number of people downtown and those commuting everyday, I’ve added 3 parking garages in prime locations. Every building in this master-plan is connected to the city’s skyway system. So people would never really have to go outside during the wintertime or walk outside across traffic lanes.

Icing on the Cake
The final addition is a large plaza with an elegant fountain at the corner of Main Avenue and Broadway. This fountain will be on the order of the Buckingham Fountain in Chicago and will draw people from around the region to simply venture downtown and stand in awe.

Here is the master-plan I came up with. Click on it for a larger image.

Fargo Panorama

Here's a panoramic view of current downtown Fargo I pieced together from several shots. Keep in mind that the Bank of the West Tower, Wells Fargo Building, Professional Building and Lashkowitz High Rise (Commonly Referred to as the Senior Highrise) are all behind me in this photo. So you're missing two of the other tall ones, but I think it's still a great pic. Click on it for a larger view.

Life Is Much Better DowntownPart II, Moorhead

I was driving over the Main Avenue Bridge yesterday and was happy to see how much of an improvement the City of Moorhead has made on their downtown. The East 4th Street Center is now open housing several businesses including the new home of Atomic Coffee. The Woodlawn Lofts are also finished with a new Moxie Java location as one of the tenants. The cornerstone building of this development is the Kassenborg Block. It’s a structure which has been around for approximately 100 years. It’s currently undergoing a restoration and will open with a new location for Juano’s and also some other high-end shops from what I’ve been told. Each of these developments also have apartments above them for people wanting to live downtown which is good for growth.

There is new steel going up for the Woodlawn Apartments on Main. These should have some pretty nice views of both downtown areas and also the Main Avenue Bridge. If I wasn’t so dead-set on Fargo I would consider taking up residence there. After these apartments are finished, the final leg of the development will be the addition of Woodlawn Condos, which promise to have even better views of the downtown and river. Finally a new 5 to 7 storey office building is plan for the space across from Atomic Coffee. I have mixed feelings on adding another building in that exact spot since it visually clogs the entrance to Moorhead, as you cross over the Main Avenue Bridge. That area right now has been opened up and I think might be better developed as a small park or perhaps water fountain. Then again, I haven’t seen the plans for the office building yet, so there is a good chance I might change my mind.

Here’s the site plan and what it’s supposed to look like when it’s completely finished according to the City of Moorhead website.





Now if you just pander your cameras slightly farther north along the same view you come across the view down below of the current US Bank Building and City Center rising from the middle of Moorhead Center Mall. The US Bank Building used to have an excellent restaurant on the top floor with really nice views. Now it’s been converted to office space and the building itself seems to have been neglected. It’s got a horrendous fire escape on the side of the building and it’s just bland. I think it’s about time that building came down.

I’m not going to touch the City Center on top of the mall. What I do think should happen with it is that they reserve an entire block downtown and build a new office tower in the future as the city grows. Move all services into that building once the new one is complete. Demolish the current city center. Renovate the Moorhead Center Mall below it so that it is a 3 storey in-door shopping center with higher end shops. Add another anchor to the eastern side of it. Add a second parking garage in place of the current elevated one on the north side. By the time it’s finished it should have 50-75 stores. When it’s finished call it the Woodlawn Mall or something else that has a ring to it, other than Moorhead Center Mall, “another great place to shop”.

I made an attempt at what I think Moorhead is capable of looking like in the future. I’ll try again later if I can get a shot of a good panorama. For now I’ll stick with this.





Well folks, that's what I have for now.

Life Is Much Better Downtown

So if the Metropolitan area continues to grow at the same rate for the next 44 years, at 1.5%, the entire CMSA would see a conservative population of 410,000. I personally think if many things continue to take off as they have for the last 5 years, we could reach that population much faster and probably see close to 500,000 by 2050. So with those types of numbers one can assume the downtown area is going to prosper, as long as the community is behind it. So I just figured I'd do some predicative images of what downtown might look like. I'm assuming by 2050, we'll have one tall 40+ storey high-rise building, several 20+ -> 30+ storey buildings and a few residential towers developed along the riverfront. At this point I would assume maybe 25,000 people live in the downtown core. Everyday, an additional 30,000 people commute in to work and out to live in the developing suburbs (West Fargo & Horace & Harwood & Dilworth).

So what might the downtown look like? Here's a brief look at what I think is expectable.





Next time I'll look further at downtown Moorhead...

A Performance We Can Be Proud Of

I recently attended a showing of “David Copperfield : An Intimate Night of Grand Illusion” at the Fargodome’s Gate City Bank “Theatre”. The show was excellent. The settings however were not. I just can’t see how people can enjoy that type of setting for a show like that. First of all, we were all packed in like sardines. Literally. They used folding chairs for the seats up front. Each seat touched right up against the next seat. Not a whole lot of space to work with, especially if you have to stay in that one spot the entire show. To get rid of the “arena” feel, they draped large black sheets to act as walls. The stage was tiny too. I would assume that he left some of his illusions out due to the size of the stage. The point is, I though it was an awesome show, but was extremely disappointed with the setting it was showed in.

This show should have been in a performing arts center. Yes that’s right. That buzz word city politicians like to throw around as the solution to their city’s problems. The entire metropolitan area is large enough to handle a center like that. There is a large enough group of individuals who are skilled in the arts that could share the center.

Here’s a few I can think of :

FM Opera Company
FM Symphony
FM Community Theatre
(if you want the entire list go here)

What we need is a structure worthy of national performances. We should be able to host musicals, concerts, and other events you would normally see in Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, and New York. We should be able to get limited showings of productions such as Cats, Phantom of the Opera, The Producers, Rent, and so on. With a theatre setting I also would see us booking more concerts, which would not originally have gone into the Fargodome, like Dave Matthews Band for example.

What I hope doesn’t happen are the current people handling our “new” downtown library project, get their dirty mitts on this and wreck that as well. The last thing we need is a half-assed attempt at something that should have been done correctly. With once glance at the proposed “building over the current building” plan by the library committee anyone would see why it is important that someone with vision handles a project on this scale. If the types of people referred to earlier get it, they’ll attempt to build us a performing arts center with a budget of maybe $20 million dollars. They’ll throw in an additional $6 million more than the downtown library project because it “should look nice”.

By The People For The People

The other mistake we mustn’t make in this pursuit is attempting to fund it using tax-payer dollars, like the Fargodome and other civic services. A performing arts center is something of a luxury to any city that has one. In essence, the people have to want it badly enough to collectively raise the funds needed for its construction and operation. I think that kind of money and spirit does exist in the metropolitan area. Albeit, it isn’t a massive group, but there are those who really care about the arts and their survival in this region of the country.

So what do I think our performing arts center should look like, what should it cost, and finally, where should it go? Well if you look at other cities our size and slightly larger (remember I’m thinking what I’d like to see up to the year 2050), I believe a performing arts center with a budget of $60-$75 million dollars for construction and then a cushion of an additional fund of $10-$20 million dollars, of which operating costs would be met by the yearly interest and yearly fund drives.

What should the building look like? I would personally prefer to not have something too modern or too futuristic in look, for example, like the new Guthrie in Minneapolis. Not saying I’m not found of their new building, it just isn’t Fargo/Moorhead type architecture, especially if you consider the types of architecture present in both downtown areas. I’d like to see something more or less brick. Sure it can have curtains of glass for excellent views, but it’s going to have to be solid. The inside should be acoustically designed to give the best sounds possible. An arrangement of seating on two levels would suffice and also have box seats arranged along the walls, perhaps 3 levels high for company or wealthier folks to take advantage of. Here’s a picture of something of what I’m hoping for…

Finally, where should this massive structure go? I would hope it would stay in the downtown areas of either Fargo or Moorhead, preferably along the Red River. Two spots in my mind that instantly jump out are the plots of land occupied by Mid-American Steel in downtown Fargo and the area where they are disassembling the current Moorhead Power Plant. The plot in Fargo has the advantage of being able to build up to the shoreline with fancy landscaping and the newly constructed Main Avenue Bridge along side it. The one con is the tracks. They run right through that land, so some heavy duty soundproofing and foundation work would have to be done to mitigate the noise from the passing trains. The Moorhead spot offers a spectacular of a future downtown skyline. I would imagine by 2050 we would have built at least, an additional 10 high-rises. It’s also located snugly in between two of the metropolitan area’s park lands. So it’s quite scenic. Here are the locations I’m talking about…



There you have it. By 2050 if Fargo-Moorhead doesn’t have a performing arts center like this in place, something terrible had to have gone wrong.

New Fargo Skyscraper

As I look at the downtown skyline, whilst driving over the 12th Ave Bridge to get to work, I think continuously to myself; "Why isn't there another tower in that skyline?". I considered the possible reasons why we haven't had another high-rise building built recently.

Population. It isn't there to support it yet... Not true. The FM area is rapidly growing and is currently at approximately 210,000 people in the CMSA. That's getting close to a quarter of a million people. 17,000 people go to work every day in downtown Fargo alone. This doesn't include downtown Moorhead. So population surely can't be one of the reasons.

Business. If you're going to build them tall, you definitely better make sure you fill it with paying customers. Even if Fargo was to build its first 30+ storey tower, it could easily be divided up into multiple uses and spread across those markets to guarantee that you will fill it. Have the first 1-5 floors be retail. You can include a front desk for a hotel as well, which will take up the next 10-20 floors. We should EASILY be able to put something like an Embassy Suites in there or something of that caliber. I wouldn't want it to be to ritzy and compete directly with the HoDo. The next 5-10 floors could be used for prime office space. Lawyers, Tech Companies, Financial Businesses, etc. The final 5 floors could be condos with the final floor being penthouses. At 35-40 storey you're going to have a decent view of the city. Especially if it's built towards the river. Anyways, the point is, the business is there to fill the space. I know many would make an argument that there are several vacancies already downtown, but if you'd look at that spaces they are talking about when compared to AAA office space, .... well there is no comparison. There are hundreds of businesses in the community that could benefit from locating their space into a building like this.

Transportation. This one is iffy. We have Main Ave for East and West travel and then University and 10th St. (both one-ways) for North and South travel. Sure they can handle the traffic right now, but at some point in the future, they are going to reach their capacity. This is no more obvious than the fact that Fargo (just Fargo folks, not anyone else) is supposed to grow to something like 243,000 people by 2056. What I've always thought has been missing from the picture is a direct link to the interstate system from downtown. Wouldn't it be wonderful to leave downtown by hopping on the freeway and eventually hit I-29 or I-94 to continue your drive home? I'm not sure where exactly there would be room for such infrastructure without ripping up a severe amount of infrastructure already there.

Railroads. This one I can see being a barrier. The downtown area is currently surrounded on the North and South Sides by two Major rail-lines. I'm talking 50-80 trains a day go across each set of tracks. This causes obvious nuisances in travel time, having to wait for passing trains. More annoying though, is the blaring horn they lay down as they approach. Luckily, this noise should be resolved by Fall 2007 with the Downtown Train Silencing Program finishing up. Until then, however, it is the same old same old.

Well, that’s a partial list I can come up. Anyone else have anything constructive to add?