Listen to this articleAfter 10 years of planning, Hennepin County is moving closer to the realization of a vision to delete its aging Southdale library in Edina in favor of a modern new building – a highly sustainable library with an art center instead of an office center and local plantings in which surface parking spaces are currently available.
On Wednesday evening, the Edina Planning Commission had $ 106.8 million, which is an inconspicuous regional library from 1971 in the Hennepin County Regional Library in the 7001 York Ave. P. 1971 would replace with a new 43,107 square meter library and a 16,164-foot Edina art center.
The Commission unanimously recommended the approval of a conditional usage permit, the location plan and the deviation of the building for the new building that has a design, which emphasizes transparency, natural lighting and extensive green areas on the 7.75 hectare project location.
The new library was designed by the MSR Design of Minneapolis and is expected to open in the summer of 2027, according to Joshua Yetman, a spokesman for Hennepin County. The decommissioning is underway, with the demolition of the existing building and the existing construction, Yetman said in an e -mail on Thursday.
The dunn is a construction manager for the project on board, which is financed with general commitment bonds.
Matthew Kruntorad from MSR Design went through the project by the Commission on Wednesday evening.
One of the design approaches is to step quietly on the environment, with plenty of green areas replace a sea from asphalt parking spaces. The 59,271 square meter building would have a smaller footprint than the existing structure, which occupies an area of 112,000 square meters, a city staff states.
The design features include daylight, accessibility via several transport modes, healthy building materials and resistant, native landscape design. A solar arrangement and a green roof are planned. Extensive green areas and improved connectivity through cycle paths and pedestrian paths are embedded in the design.
The design is really based on … to ensure that you can easily get to the front door. … our current state is basically impermeable and has stayed there for 60 years. The new proposal really tries to put the building to the northwest, to have the size on the York page and then reduce the scale to the districts in the east, ”said Kruntorad.
The project has been in progress for a long time.
Hennepin County first started a replacement library in Southdale Library in 2015. In 2016, the County moved its service center from the library to the Southdale Center shopping center. Pandemic has brought the library's replacement plans to the queue, but the planning was resumed in 2023.
The existing library – the Edina, Richfield, Bloomington and Minneapolis served – closed in January.
In December 2023, Edina's city council received an early look at the library plans and gave the project strong reviews. At this point, the estimated project costs were 95 million US dollars, including demolition, rainwater infrastructure, soft costs and other expenses, such as Finance & Commerce.
In turn, the planning commission spoke on the project on Wednesday evening mainly in bright conditions, although Commissioner Bonnie Padilla expressed some reservations.
“I am a bit worried about the atrium and the openness of it. I appreciate the picture you gave us and the idea behind it, but I'm a little worried about the noise and acoustics, ”said Padilla.
Nevertheless, Padilla said that she “fully supports” the project.
“There is nothing that is neither reflected in the city nor in the county as … a facility like this between the library and the art center. So I think that if you go down in a neighborhood as a stranger and want to assess or try a judgment about a city, you will see the library and the services you have provided. I think that's a wonderful step, ”she said.
“It's a beautiful building,” said Commissioner David Alkire. “I am not an architect, so I would not say that I have refined the taste in buildings, but I know what I like and I think it's an impressive building and it will look good in our community. Thank you for the quality of the design.”
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