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The Pride In Minneapolis Landscaping
Much of the credit for this is given to the urban planners who had a vision. They wanted to keep a lot of the natural landmarks and have major areas linked by parks. One of their projects was to not only have a scenic drive called the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway, but to also have proper bike paths and walking trails the full 52 miles the byway runs. Almost 17% of Minneapolis is made up of parks. There are also five golf courses. All of this had to be planned by the landscape architect. Horace Cleveland is responsible for much of the Minneapolis landscaping. He was able to be so thorough and able to create so much land to be used for other things than buildings due to private donations and a supportive city council. Located in the city as well is the Chain of Lakes. This has been used to its potential. There are paths that connect the lakes, and residents can use the lakes for swimming and boating, even fishing. In the winter, they can use it for skating. There is also a wildflower and bird sanctuary located in Theodore Wirth Park, which is 60% the size of New York’s Central Park. The Minneapolis landscaping ideas are responsible for some of America’s classic literature. The oldest park in the city, Minnehaha Park, contains the famous Minnehaha Falls. These falls are over 50 feet tall, and lure almost half a million visitors to the park every year. In his “Song of Hiawatha”, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow created the wife of Hiawatha, and she was the namesake of Minnehaha Falls. Due to the impeccable landscape architecture and urban planning of Minneapolis, the city was awarded the 2nd place prize by the organizers of Earth Day which was based on environmental factors, and the effect the environment has on the residents of Minneapolis. Even with the cold winters and snow Minneapolis receives each year, it is home to the second highest number of bicycle commuters, even in the winter time. This is due to the excellent bike trails that are in the city. There are almost 90 miles of bicycle trails in the most congested areas. As a result of this bit of landscape architecture, Minneapolis was named by Forbes magazine as the fifth cleanest city in the world. By utilizing existing architecture, Minneapolis landscaping has added pride to the architecture, by reusing existing structures to connect the many bicycle paths and walkways. Many parts of these paths were formerly railroad lines or bridges. This little bit of landscape architecture shows the importance of taking existing areas into consideration and working around them to create the best landscaping that they can. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Joseph Smith is author of this article on Landscape Minneapolis. Find more information about Minnesota Landscape Design here. |
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