Local Architects Competing To Temporarily Revamp Downtown Park.

In front of the Minneapolis Convention Center sits a medium-sized expanse of grass and brick. Ringed by trees, it offers out-of-town visitors and downtown workers a little bit of the bucolic during lunch breaks.

But, at some level, it's also pretty boring, a photogenic shortcut from the Convention Center to Marquette Avenue and points north and west. Next summer, the city's Convention and Visitor's Bureau wants to spice things up—they've invited local architects and artists to

create and install a temporary, interactive, site-specific, eco-focused “portal” to the City of Minneapolis on the Plaza of the Minneapolis Convention Center. This challenge is intended to encourage exciting proposals and thoughtful discussion about how to make our downtown more vital, dynamic, livable, walkable and environmentally friendly.

East Harriet firm Locus Architecture has thrown their hat into the ring, along with 16 others. Locus' design, called "RIPPLE," features a 20-foot tall thicket of steel bars, coated in plastic and topped with solar-powered LED lights, that will sway and, well, ripple in the wind. According to Locus' proposal, the overall effect is intended to be beguiling, beautiful, and maybe a little bit confusing, drawing convention-goers and office workers alike. 

See all entries here, and vote on Locus' entry here. Voting closes Jan. 7