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CARLETON COLLEGE NEIGHBORHOOD IMPACT STUDY (NIS)

 

 

Welcome to the Carleton College Neighborhood Impact Study Group (NISG) Wiki! The purpose of this website is to exchange information and feedback about the transformation of the former Northfield Middle School into Carleton College’s new Arts Union.

Please use this forum to help guide us in the design and planning process. Anyone can access this site to view, edit pages, and upload comments. Simply CREATE A WIKI ACCOUNT and join our forum. The links in the sidebar at right will connect you to the latest design drawings and plans. We want to know what you think!

The SUMMARY OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD IMPACT STUDY, including a synopsis of neighbor commentary (as of March 27, 2009), can be downloaded here. Although the plans for the Carleton Arts Union are currently on hold, we encourage you to visit this site for updates. The Wiki will remain open, including a space for you to leave comments on our DISCUSSION PAGE. Thank you for your participation and interest in this project!

 

 

NIS TIMELINE: Presentation materials and minutes from previous meetings can be viewed by clicking on the blue links in the timeline below. The timeline of future events, milestones and meetings will change based on the progress of the Arts Union Project and your feedback.

PREVIOUS EVENTS: 

 

UPCOMING EVENTS:

  • 2012 (estimate): Arts Union Phase I Complete

 

This Wiki is being managed by Oslund and Associates, Inc. -- a Landscape Architecture Firm located in Minneapolis, MN. Carleton College has asked us to apply our extensive experience in campus planning and design to conduct a Neighborhood Impact Study for the Arts Union Project. Our objective is to maintain open lines of communication between the college and the community ensure that the new Arts Union becomes a welcome success for both Carleton College and its neighbors.For more information about or firm please visit our website at www.oaala.com, or contact us at info@oaala.com.

Comments (9)

cliff clark said

at 7:40 pm on Nov 11, 2008

I hope that others will comment on the plans as they are developed.
Cliff Clark

Mark Gleason said

at 9:16 am on Nov 12, 2008

Got to figure out how to include my photo so that I don't have to be a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Just wanted to check in as a member of the Carleton Advisory Comittee on Community Relations.

Great job, Joe, on getting this wiki up. And thank you Sandra for your comments.

Something I'm interested in is the way that the Arts Union will relate to and receive people from downtown.

joe hargis said

at 10:33 am on Nov 12, 2008

On behalf of all of us at Carleton, welcome to our wiki site. The feedback and perspective we receive from the Northfield community is vital to our planning for the Arts Union project. Thanks in advance to all who come to participate. Thanks also to Sandra and the Oslund folks for getting the site up and going, and for their help with the neighborhood impact study.

Sandra Rolph said

at 4:30 pm on Nov 12, 2008

The following comment was originally emailed to staff at Carleton, and therefore posted here anonymously:

Carleton’s neighbors appreciated the chance we had at Wednesday’s open house to see and comment on the latest Arts Union plans. I talked with you briefly then about my reactions, and now that I’ve had a chance to mull things over, I’d like to revise and expand a bit on what I said there.

I’m most concerned about the appearance of the building from the east, which most directly faces the residential part of the neighborhood. While I find it a distinct improvement over the 1950’s structure it replaces, I’m really not very excited about it. There’s a certain blandness to it—beige stone, monotonous long horizontal lines. That’ll be less evident in the summer (see view #3 on the web gallery), but during the 7 months when there are no leafy trees to mask the view I’m afraid it may look pretty stark (view #4 suggests this).

From the south (view #6), the new structure looks kind of “tacked on” to the old building. Would a darker finish material (bricks?) help? I do like the appearance from College Street on the north (view #5)—I think the clear articulation of the gallery and the dance studio helps a lot.

I don’t feel, as do some, that the building needs to “blend in” with the neighborhood and its homes from an earlier era—that would seem nearly impossible short of some kind of “Disneyesque” treatment. But I would like to see a visually attractive façade that neighbors will continue to enjoy looking at for years to come.

Sandra Rolph said

at 4:31 pm on Nov 12, 2008

These comments were given at last Wednesday's open house:
1. I live right across the park from the arts union and I'm all for it.
2. No parking!!! Shame on Carleton
3. This will be a great asset for Northfield as well as Carleton!
4. Lose the mumbo-jumbo about the design items. Try to lessen the impact/perceived height to Central Park
5. Is it student oriented? Will the building suffocate Central Park? Will the building understand the historic (pre-statehood) and neighborhood ambience and importance? The spaces seem cold and uninviting! The materials proposed appear cold, especially in winter landscape.

Ed Lufkin said

at 9:28 am on Nov 19, 2008

What a superb idea! I'll link this URL to the website for the Northeast Side Neighborhood Association (NESNA), http://northfiedeastside.org, to give all its members easy access as well. Ed

Sandra Rolph said

at 11:42 am on Nov 19, 2008

Ed,
Thanks for the link to the NESNA website. I have added it to the sidebar.
Sandra

Richard Noer said

at 9:40 am on Jan 30, 2009

In your posting (4th comment above) of my letter to Carleton staff, Sandra, it was thoughtful of you to keep them anonymous (lacking my permission). But I'm happy to own up to the authorship.

In fact, there's a problem in the Neighborhood Discussion Questions section of the wiki: Contributions are displayed without attribution, but it's easy to check elsewhere who posted them. One may easily assume the poster is the author of the contributions, but that's not necessarily the case.

I'd like to urge posters to add the names of the authors, unless those authors really want anonymity.

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