Eco-restorative Site Design for New Southdale Library

Eco-restorative Site Design for New Southdale Library

EOR is working with project architect (MSR Design) on the new Southdale Library. This large project will be replacing the previous 1970's building and its extensive, surrounding parking areas typical of the era. EOR's team of landscape architects and civil/water resources engineers are designing a fully integrated, sustainable, eco-restorative site that will serve as a much-needed community greenspace, in an ever-densifying area, that has experienced a significant loss of permeable groundcover.

The existing site features nearly 100% impervious, 7-acre asphalt parking lot that will be transformed into an oasis of human and wildlife habitat, restored to a gradient of pre-settlement vegetation communities from freshwater marsh to oak savanna built around a created wetland that will manage site runoff and regional/community flooding. Gathering nodes across the site will support library and Edina Art Center programs with plazas and viewing platforms designed for engaging with art, natural areas, and integrated, playscapes that will serve as environmental education exhibits for users of all ages. 

The framework for the site design is based on a gradient of pre-settlement landscape biomes, from freshwater marsh to upland oak savannah. A driver of the design approach is to implement as many sustainable landscape strategies as possible to increase site resilience and safety, while supporting habitat and human health within this increasingly, expanding urban area.