DeLaSalle Park Alternate Site
In early 2006, Friends of Nicollet Island, an activist group organized
to prevent a private high school from building a football stadium
that would hamper the historic character of Nicollet Island. The
group proposed an alternate site just across the east channel of
the Mississippi River. Landscape architect Ted Wirth and
Robert Roscoe / Design for Preservation developed a plan based
on enhancing the sloping terrain to create an amphitheater for
various sports and cultural events.
From a curving stepped slope, spectators can watch the event in
front of them while gaining views of the river, Nicollet Island,
and the Minneapolis downtown skyline beyond. The amphitheater may
be the most appropriate use to remediate underlying pollution problems
by forming non-invasive landscaping that continues riverfront parkland.
As of February, 2007, the site’s landowner, the Minneapolis
Park Board, has not supported this plan, but community advocacy is
organizing a coalition of various environmental and historic preservation
groups to build their case for this site as a more appropriate multi-use
solution. |
