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Why no signs announcing that bathrooms are available to the public in the Archer House?

Archer House - front entrance Archer House - rear entrance Archer House - lobby level restrooms Wayfinding sign 
Archer House renovations are complete, including the ADA-compliant restroom facilities that are available to the public daily from 6:00 AM to 12:30 AM.

The public use of the bathrooms (lower level and lobby level) is part of the agreement with the City of Northfield in exchange for a $100,000 forgivable loan. (See last summer’s blog post, City ponders $100k forgivable loan for the Archer House; a royal flush for downtown?)

  • Why not put up some ‘public restroom’ signs at the front and rear of the Archer House.
  • Why not add ‘public restrooms’ to the Wayfinding signs scattered about downtown?
  • Why not put up a couple of ‘public restrooms’ signs along Riverwalk, now that Riverwalk Market Fair is in full swing every Saturday?

Another streetscape enhancement

Bridge Square streetscape enhancement Bridge Square streetscape enhancement
There’s a new street sign up on a pole in Bridge Square, part of the ongoing wayfinding and streetscape-related improvements to downtown Northfield.

Another wayfinding sign goes up

wayfinding sign wayfinding sign  wayfinding sign 
City workers installed another wayfinding sign last week, this one at 5th and Water. See some of our other wayfinding and streetscape-related blog posts.

Wayward Wayfinding sign finds its way to Bridge Square

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A year ago, the first Wayfinding sign appeared on 4th St. between Division and Washington. Then it disappeared for a while, coming back in early October.

Left: Now it’s moved to the intersection of 4th and Division on Bridge Square, next to Community Resource Bank’s downtown location. Where will it be next?

Right: there’s a new Wayfinding sign at 3rd and Division.

Wayfinding sign on 4th – updated version

Wayfinding sign on 4th Wayfinding sign on 4th

The Wayfinding sign on 4th has been updated recently with a second piece. It was initially added a year ago and then disappeared for a while.

The only other one I know about is at 2nd and Division.

Another downtown Wayfinding sign installed

IMG_4299 Wayfinding sign
The City installed another downtown streetscape Wayfinding this week, this new one at the SW corner of Division and 2nd. (See this Oct. blog post about the first and this Sept blog post about the streetscape arches.)

Thanks to NHS head honcho Hayes Scriven for the alert. I’m assuming Hayes is happy about this sign, as the NHS is featured on both sides. I see they’re a provider of tourist info and toilet facilities, too.

Podcast: Director of Public Services Joel Walinski on the 5th St and Water St parking lot improvements

Joel Walinski, Tracy Davis, Ross Currier Our guest today was Director of Public Services, Joel Walinski, discussing the 5th Street and Water Street Parking Lot improvement project

See the consultant’s Northfield streetscape website for all the background and documentation.

Below are photos from the Mayor’s Streetscape Task Force meeting help earlier in the day.

John Slack, Streetscape Task Force consultant Streetscape Task Force

Click play to listen. 30 minutes.

Our radio show/podcast, Locally Grown, usually airs Wednesdays at 5:30 PM on KYMN 1080 AM. You can also subscribe to the podcast feed, or subscribe with iTunes. We seek your comments and suggestions.

New wayfinding sign, more streetscape development

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The new streetscape wayfinding sign is now up on 4th St. on the south side of the First National Bank Northfield. See Ross’ NDDC blog post for more details.

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The new streetscape project at 3rd St. and Hwy 3 was mostly completed last Saturday. I took photos of Architect Spencer Jones there with a crew from Grove Landscaping as they finished up. All that’s left is the installation of a wayfinding sign.

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The arches on Division at 3rd St. were the initial streetscape installations. See the blog post, poll and discussion from Sept. 1.

“Behind the Scenes” Weekly Meeting Update 1 – NDDC Retail Strategies

Once again, another week goes by and I’m not sure where it went. I attended or participated in several meetings of various City and civic orgs this week, and I thought some of you would find this information both interesting and helpful.

On Tuesday, the NDDC had a meeting of the Retail Strategies group at the Grand, where they presented an overview of their Work Plan. The first slide presented the list of opportunities identified in the EDA’s Economic Development Plan, some of which are clearly within the purview of the NDDC’s:

Retail Support Strategies
Summary 1 – Economic Development Plan

Opportunity 1: Diversifying the Economic Base
1a: Land for Business Expansion
1b: Concentrate on Needs of Existing Businesses
1c: Implement a Targeted Recruitment Strategy
1d: Raise Awareness of Northfield within the Region
1e: Explore Options for Leveraging Existing Fiber Networks

Opportunity 2: Maintaining Northfield’s Quality of Place
2a: Maintain and Enhance the Existing Downtown
2b: Develop Coordinated Retail Strategy

2c: Redefine Northfield’s Relationship to its Neighbors

Opportunity 3: Attracting and Retaining Talent
3a: Increase Connections with Current and Former Students
3b: Continue to Engage the Leadership of the Colleges in Economic Development
3c: Increase the range of Housing Options
3d: Create Entrepreneurial and Innovative Start-Up Opportunities
3e: Take Steps to Integrate City’s Growing Latino Population

Continue reading “Behind the Scenes” Weekly Meeting Update 1 — NDDC Retail Strategies

Straw poll: Preliminary designs for a downtown wayfinding sign program

IMG_6232.JPGAt today’s downtown forum on downtown retail strategies, Randy Jennings and Elin Odegaard from Neuger Communications Group took the crowd through this Powerpoint presentation on the preliminary designs for a wayfinding sign program for the downtown historic district. (Click photo to enlarge.)


Click forward and backward through the 21 slides.

Click play to listen to this 11 minute audio of the presentation while you flip through the Powerpoint slides. You can also download/view the PDF of the presentation.

It’s not going to be a democratic process for deciding on the theme but I’m interested in people’s reaction to the three proposed on Slide #20.

[poll=5]

Randy emailed me additional details:

At the joint NDDC/Chamber of Commerce forum this morning (February 6), Neuger Communications Group presented the preliminary designs for a wayfinding sign program for the downtown historic district. This design project was commissioned by city staff as part of the larger streetscape planning initiative.

From October through early December we conducted an informal series of meetings and conversations with a variety of constituent groups interested in the vitality and identity of downtown. Informed by these conversations, we have prepared a set of designs that capture three distinct community identities: historic Northfield, classic Northfield, and contemporary Northfield.

To view a pdf of the PowerPoint presentation that provides a very brief summary of the project, background materials on several aspects of community identity, and the three preliminary designs, click here.

Over the next several weeks we will be meeting with a variety of groups (the Mayor’s Streetscape Task Force, the Heritage Preservation Commission, and others) to gather responses to the designs. There will be at least one, and probably two open public forums to solicit community responses. The dates and locations of the public forums have not yet been determined.

Toward the middle to the end of March, we will consult with city staff and will select one design treatment to present to the city council for action.

Locally Grown podcast #18: Streetscape and ArtsPlan ’06 with guest Howard Merriam

This content originally appeared on Northfield.org.

The May 19 recording session (L to R: Howard Merriam, Morgan Weiland, Ross Currier, Tracy Davis)

Howard Merriam, Director of Resource Planning for the City of Northfield, was the guest for Friday’s Locally Grown show (May 19), discussing plans for the downtown Streetscape & Way-Finding Plan (bike racks up first) and the ArtsPlan06 project. (L to R: Howard Merriam, Morgan Weiland, Ross Currier, Tracy Davis.)

You’ll need the latest version of Adobe Flash Player to access this content.

Click the play button to listen (30 minutes), or download the MP3 File, or subscribe to the feed, or subscribe with iTunes. Join the ISSUES discussion list to continue the conversation on these and other issues. Attach a comment to give us feedback. See the Locally Grown page for previous episodes and more on the show.