Gold Medal Park... 10 blogging years later | HomesMSP

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When I started blogging about Twin Cities sites and neighborhoods 10 years ago, my first ‘Sunday’s Site’ was Gold Medal Park. Here is what I had to say in the spring of 2008…

Whether you already live in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, are thinking about moving here or are just visiting, there are so many interesting sites & neighborhoods in our wonderful community I decided to start sharing one with you each week. Some will be well-known, others more obscure. Our visits will include not just a specific site but also a little bit about the surrounding neighborhood. Hopefully they will start to create a mosaic of the unique sense of place that is the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

Minneapolis means ‘City of Lakes’ and you don’t have to go very far to find some kind of body of water. The city started on the downtown riverfront near St. Anthony Falls, so it seems fitting to choose my first site in that area.

In the misting rain on Friday afternoon I visited Gold Medal Park, a new 7.5 acre park planted with 300 trees along the riverfront, and walked the gently spiraling path to the top of the observation mound.

In that post I talked about the neighboring new Guthrie Theater complex completed in 2006, and the condo development that was just beginning in the area. In the 10 years since then not only have the trees grown and some outdoor sculptures moved from the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden as it was refreshed, but condo development has flourished… and the new US Bank Stadium can now be seen in the not-so-far distance.

As the park has developed so has the neighborhood, including a thriving Farmer’s Market between Mill City Museum and the Guthrie Theatre on Saturday mornings May – October and Izzy’s Ice Cream at the southeast corner of the park, worth a stop any time of year. Trader Joe’s has announced that a new store will be opening this year just a few blocks from here, making this charming riverfront neighborhood even more walkable.