Bassett Creek Valley Master Plan adopted by the Minneapolis City Council

The Minneapolis City Council recently adopted the Bassett Creek Valley Master Plan prepared by Hoisington Koegler Group. With a two-year urban design and strategic planning process now complete, transformation of a tired, 230-acre industrial area at the doorstep of downtown is ready to shift from plan to action. Plans for this urban frontier calling for 6,000 housing units, 5 million square feet of commercial space and 45 acres of new parkland will redefine Minneapolis much like Denver Commons has done for Denver and Coal Harbour for Vancouver.

HKGi worked closely with the Bryn Mawr and Harrison Neighborhoods as well as Ryan Companies to manage the planning process, which included several community workshops drawing nearly 700 participants. At one workshop conducted in five languages with over 200 participants, HKGi facilitated an urban design game that allowed players to wrestle with the trade-offs between land use density, neighborhood amenities and financial realities. The result was community consensus around an innovative yet feasible urban design strategy. The workshop and the project are viewed by many who experienced it as the “gold standard” of community planning efforts.

For more information about the Bassett Creek Valley Master Plan, please go to our project page or the City of Minneapolis project page.

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