It's the bold, glassy, ship-like look of the Minnesota Vikings' new home that has everybody talking.
But the surroundings are the thing that could very well turn the $975 million downtown Minneapolis stadium into one of the most remarkable urban parks in the land.
A schematic design submitted to the city of Minneapolis late last week by stadium architects calls for developing nearly 8 acres of park space immediately around the building that features grass, trees and wide walkways that will make it easy for walkers, runners and bikers to navigate around more than 1.6 million square feet of glass, metal and steel.
The intention, designers say, is to soften the impact of a massive building — nearly twice the size of the Metrodome — on the downtown skyline and make the area surrounding it more inviting to fans, neighbors and visitors, not only on game days but throughout the year.
"The whole approach that we've taken is that it's another one of the great civic spaces in the city on the east side of Minneapolis," said Tom Oslund, a local landscape architect working on the project with HKS Inc., the stadium's lead architect. "I think it's going to be a really cool urban park."
Plans call for a 2.7-acre plaza on the stadium's west — or downtown — end that will lead up to the five, 95-foot high pivoting glass doors that serve as the venue's main entrance.
Nearly 300 trees — likely a mix of elms, maples, lindens and other varieties native to Minnesota — will frame the plaza and building facade. Two walkways or paths — an outside loop near bordering streets and an inside loop that wraps tightly around the stadium — will circle the site, along with shard-like-shaped sections of park distinguished by a mix of perennials and native, ornamental and turf grasses.
Oslund said the designers' intent was to create "an open space area for people to gather," much like they can at the plaza at Target Field or at Gold Medal Park near the Guthrie Theater.
