Water Works project underway

Submitted image: HGA Architects / The future Water Works Park Pavilion will feature the limestone walls of the original mill building both inside and out.

By William Morris
Staff Writer

Planning the construction of Minneapolis’ newest waterfront park included more than a few educated guesses.

“It was very complicated trying to design a new building when the old building we were working with was half-buried,” Minneapolis Park Board project manager Kate Lamers said Wednesday during a tour of the eponymous mill ruins in Mill Ruins Park, which extends along the Mississippi Riverfront around the south end of the Stone Arch Bridge.

Mill Ruins Park is the future home of the Water Works, a plan to build a two-story pavilion and restaurant, outdoor terrace and grand staircase in and around several long-abandoned flour mill buildings.

Staff photo: William Morris / Minneapolis Park and Recreation Superintendent Al Bangoura speaks Wednesday in front of the former Bassett Mill building in Mill Ruins Park. Construction has begun on a future pavilion and restaurant built in the shell of the former mill.

On Wednesday, city leaders gathered for a ceremonial groundbreaking to kick off the project, although the true earth moving kicked off in late July. The former Bassett Mill building and attached rail spur have largely been excavated, while the nearby Columbia and Occidental mill buildings remain largely buried.

The Water Works Park Pavilion will incorporate the walls and surviving ceilings of the Bassett Mill when complete, with the uncovered limestone walls once more visible from the river. The site also has long been significant to Minnesota’s Native American tribes, and the city is eager to see those centuries of history incorporated in the new site, Park and Recreation Superintendent Al Bangoura said.

“You can trace the history of Minneapolis from this spot where we stand today, from timber mills to flour mills to the iconic attraction that it is today, where people live, work and play,” he said.

The city is partnering with The Sioux Chef for the pavilion’s restaurant. Owamni: An Indigenous Kitchen is expected to open in spring 2021, while the rest of the pavilion will open in fall 2020.

The Water Works is one prong of the larger RiverFirst initiative, an effort by the Minneapolis Parks Foundation to revitalize 11 miles of riverfront in downtown and north Minneapolis. The city expects to break ground this fall on a new river overlook on 26th Avenue North this fall, and other park and trail improvements running the length of the north Minneapolis waterfront are planned to follow. The foundation has set a $17.9 million fundraising goal for the entire campaign.

The city is long overdue to activate its waterfront, Mayor Jacob Frey said, especially right next to the central business district.

“When you can look a quarter-mile [east] and a quarter-mile upstream and see maybe five people, then you know we have some work to do,” Frey said.

A second phase of work at Mill Ruins Park will bring improvements to the waterfront areas between West River Parkway and the river. That work will kick off in 2021.

“This is the vision for a space that’s going to be teeming with people,” Park Board District 4 Commissioner Jono Cowgill said. “It’s no longer going to be a throughway for cars, but it’s going to be a place where all people, all modes, can stop and gather and celebrate the incredible falls we have right behind us.”

HU Construction is the lead contractor for the project, which was designed by HGA Architects and Engineers and Damon Farber Landscape Architects.