Our normal holiday routine of year end accounting, writing, and cleaning transformed in 2011 into a whirl of design and construction that has continued into the first part of the new year. Greg, Kate, and I have been running non-stop working on FSFM, and restaurants, and apartments, and schools.

In response to this welcome problem, we’re happy to announce that our old friend Brian Swem has agreed to join us at Lott3Metz. Greg, Kate, and I are fortunate that such an easy personality fit with such a broad skill set would consider our cause.

We’re looking forward to a busy and productive 2012 and we’re very excited that Brian is going to be along for the ride.

Happy New Year!

But, on our way out on our right, there it was: bunches and bunches of fresh, green, leafy basil! Not the scrawny, dim end of season stuff either; but summer hot, bright green, fragrant bushes! We were on our way to great summertime Pesto for Sunday dinner.

While washing leaves and mashing garlic, I was reminded of an episode from our design meetings with the FSFM Development Committee.  In times of design frustration, it was not uncommon for one of the committee members to exclaim: ‘…I don’t know why we’re wasting all this time, the market is just fine as it is…let’s just leave it alone’. Christine Helms-Maletic, Mark Miller, and I all had our standard responses but the answer that stuck with me came from John Platte.

John’s been selling his apples at the Fulton Street Farmers Market for a long time. The last few years, because he noticed that customers have been coming to the later and later into the season and throughout the offseason, he decided to change some of his practices in order to keep selling his apples later and later into the holidays. From his perspective, the commitment of the neighborhood and the vendors to  aspire to an improved, year round market have inspired his fellow vendors to find new products to sell and to find new ways to extend their seasons – cold storage, greenhouses, aquaponics – to sell to customers who are shopping deeper into the season and would really love to have some fresh Pesto in November in Michigan. John and his fellow vendors have seen the opportunity and risen to meet the demand. The FSFM Development Committee had to follow through with a design and construction to validate the everyone’s faith.

The smell of  Basil in November is the sweet smell of success.

Construction starts this week. The Pesto was great.

http://ourgoodnessisgrowing.org/

Construction begins in earnest on November 16th, 2011 and continues throughout the winter. The new and improved market will be open for the first day of the 2012 market season on May 5th 2012. During construction the market will be open so we can all get our chickens and eggs from the Rakowskis and Crane Dance Farms, our lamb bones for stock from S & S Lamb, and our root veggies from the Vissers.

While we’re starting construction there is still much to be done. The FSFM Campaign Cabinet has raised over $2 million from public, private, and individual sources. We need to raise $600,000.00 more to finish the project. If you haven’t already please make a donation to the FSFM Campaign at the campaign website www.ourgoodnessisgrowing.org.

We’ll be posting progress throughout construction. Stop back for updates and pray for a mild winter.

As the last midwest outpost before the wild west, it seems that Minneapolis/St. Paul has always had a great Do it Yourself/Make Your Own Fun ethic. From The Guthrie Theater in the early sixties and all its subsequent feeders and spin-offs to Twin Tone Records in the seventies and all of their ferocious noise; from their long time community commitment to its parks and natural resources to their recent commitment to their transportation infrastructure; MSP has never ceased to inspire me as an urban designer.

Minneapolis has always been its own thing in its own place – that is the inspiration. I never hear apologies for Frank’s Weisman or Jean’s New Guthrie or the Martin Olav Sabo Bridge because the City and its institutions are not afraid to aim high. They’ve planned, they’ve aspired, and they’ve built a great city. We can and should all be so lucky.

I love Minneapolis.

Brief Parade of Favorite MSP Links:

Husker Du - Love is All Around

Martin Olav Sabo Bridge on Streetfilms

Midtown Greenway on Youtube

Tyler’s point regarding a market based planning solutions not working in all environments is valid. While I would agree that, in general, we need stronger municipal planning departments the reality is that we don’t have them and won’t have them for the foreseeable future.

Like any other urban/social problem, I don’t see us or our work or any one solution as a fit for every planning project a City has to offer. But, as practitioners, we are one solution as translators of citizens desires and editors of a 21st Century, Midwestern urban fabric.

Thanks, Tyler.

Even though there is still so much to do I think George would be proud.

Here’s to ten more!

The Michigan Department of Transportation ‘owns’ Division from Oakes SW all the way North to Leonard NE. MDOT’s vision of what makes a successful street is very different than mine: MDOT sees Division as an extension of their freeway and I see Division as our Main Street. MDOT continues to be an impediment to physical and policy improvements that would make Division Avenue a vibrant urban corridor instead of a MDOT racetrack for getting the hell out of town.

We need to aim higher: the City of Grand Rapids should own Division not MDOT. MDOT needs to be bought out of its ownership of Division (and its connections on Oakes and Leonard et, al) so Grand Rapids can craft the street the way we know it needs to be to foster our urban community.

The current progress is writ in the new paint on the street: frustratingly temporary and desperately incremental. We can and need to do better.

A winning formula – erased. I realize that the Michigan legislation is trying to do their best to make our state better, but…they always forgot about the “little guy”, the people who put consistent investment into the state.  Yes, big projects are good and they do benefit our state and the region in which they are constructed, but it is the multitude of little projects that fill the gaps, that provide for better neighborhoods, that provide a destination for people.  Their is a misinformed belief (attitude) that these credits will no longer help.  I disagree as our office sees how it does help.  It appears that whatever is proposed will require more bureaucracy (more government) which also does not set well with me.  We do not need more unnecessary government for programs that have already been proven to work.  I hope a miracle occurs and the Michigan legislator gets it right.