The New Streets

Which picture do you like better?

"The groundbreaking manual for walkable urban thoroughfares jointly created by the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) and the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), "Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares: A Context Sensitive Approach," is a draft no more.The manual provides welcome relief from conventional design guidelines that prescribe wider lanes and faster speeds to move more automobile traffic, with almost no regard for the environment created for pedestrians or the ability of the street to support sidewalk commerce such as sidewalk cafes and storefront businesses." (1000 Friends of Minnesota website)

Lets make Main and Broadway diagonal parking as well as some side streets.

The American Crystal Palace

Artist, David Danielson from Roseau offers this great idea:  "I have been brainstorming about the Palace/Wayne Hotel. I'm hoping for the best with the Artspace meeting. Nonprofits have been hit hard by the downturn in the economy, though. Have you thought about corporate branding with iconic symbolism? How about renaming the Palace/Wayne the American Crystal Palace, celebrating what the Crookston region is mostly about "Sugar". People always like something sweet and I think would stop in Crookston for that free bag of sugar or sugar concoction or sugar related nicknack. A sugarbeet sculpture would be kitschy but no more kitschy than Paul and Babe.
 A coffeeshop with special gourmet crystal sugar condiments, historical museum of sugar production ,migrant workers etc. The building is large enough to house that and artspace, a large restaurant and museum space for french heritage(a heraldic sculpture of an oxcart )and other specialty stores, and of course adjunct university facilities.
 The Iconic symbolism comes into play in peoples imaginations(especially children's who want to have their pictures taken with it). Paul and Babe are the perfect folk art Iconic Symbols celebrating their region, I'm sure 99.9 percent of people in this area have stood by Paul and Babe, and why Bemidji is a tourist destination and Grand Rapids isn't so much. I'm sure American Crystal Sugar would be interested in helping in renovation along with all the sugar beet farmers and everyone else, by catering to their self interest, giving them a piece of the project. The more they give the larger the plaque or engraved brick(or hand prints in concrete) they get on the building(Roseau has done this successfully putting in a 300,000 fireplace in the library, and recently a large Gazebo in a park). There is really no reason why something grand can't be done. Roseau resurrected their old creamery building which was just a shell with no roof or windows. A group of local  private investors scrapped together 3 million, attracted one of the largest restaurant(250 seat) chains in Winnipeg. Put the Polaris Experience in and a coffeeshop. Its still a success, so if a one horse town can do it, theres no reason why Crookston can't."

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Embodied Energy

"Many believe that to have a green building, everything must grow out of the newest technologies. This approach solves one problem by introducing another: Demolishing old buildings is inefficient. When a building is torn down, its "embodied energy"--the energy already exerted to create and gather the materials, and then construct the structure--is wasted. Moreover, materials from that demolished building could end up in a landfill. The National Trust for Historic Preservation estimates that one-quarter of the municipal waste stream consists of construction debris. And according to a 2004 report by the Brookings Institution, such demolition could add up to a big problem: About one-third of the U.S. building stock will be taken down and replaced by 2030."