Congratulations to the 6th Annual MDID Greening & Public Realm Awards Winners

MINNEAPOLIS (August 26, 2015) — The Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District announced its 6^th Annual Greening & Public Realm Award winners today, a group that includes seven new winners among the 12 categories decided by a public online vote.

Included in the 12 award recipients [full list below] in this year’s categories are first-time winners Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant (Outdoor Café), Spoon & Stable (Streetscape Green Infrastructure), Central Lutheran Church (Streetscape Greening), Kenosha Building (Façade Greening), Aloft Minneapolis (Entryway Greening), 5^th Avenue Lofts & Security Warehouse Lofts (Public Realm Improvement) and Loring Park (Neighborhood).

Also among the winners is Loring Greenway in the Large Green Space category. Loring Greenway has now won in each of the six years the Greening Awards have been presented.

“The variety and quality of downtown green spaces is increasingly evident through our annual Greening Awards initiative,” said Steve Cramer, President & CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council and Downtown Improvement District. “As we continue to see more new nominees and winners, it shows the level of commitment our community is putting into adding and enhancing green space. Congratulations to all our winners and finalists for helping advance this important goal.”

MDID also announced it received a record-number of online participants in the voting process. Greening Award winners are selected exclusively by the public through an online vote, and this year’s final tally of 1,312 responses eclipsed last year’s number by 400 voters.

The Greening Awards, an MDID initiative since 2010, celebrate outstanding examples of private greening and placemaking happening in Downtown Minneapolis. They are intended to inspire all to work toward making downtown a greener and more vibrant place. MDID’s mission through the Greening Awards is to encourage all downtown businesses to participate in the greening effort.

MDID accepted nominations through an open social media and email submissions campaign throughout July leading up to a July 20 deadline, yielding 35 unique finalists. Submissions were divided into 12 categories based on the nature of the project. Finalist voting began August 10 and concluded August 24.

Winners will receive a commemorative Greening Award created by Wood from the Hood, a Minneapolis-based company that reclaims discarded trees from urban neighborhoods and creates high-quality wood products. Each award will display the year the award was issued.

Here are this year’s results:

Best Large Green Space Activation

·        Target Field Station — 34.4%

·        Government Center Plaza — 30.3%

·        Convention Center Plaza — 27.1%

·        Peavey Plaza — 8.2%

Best Small Green Space Activation

·        Piazza on the Mall – 57.6%

·        IDS Center PARKLOT presented by Bank of America – 42.4%

Best Large Green Space

·        Loring Greenway — 41.9%

·        Loring Park — 31.7%

·        Triangle Park — 19.7%

·        Elliot Park — 6.7%

Best Small Green Space

·        Assisi on 9^th Park — 67.0%

·        Target Plaza – South Entry — 33.0%

Best Outdoor Café

·        Dakota Jazz Club —  52.6%

·        Red Cow — 25.3%

·        8^th Street Grill — 22.1%

Best Streetscape Green Infrastructure

·        Spoon & Stable — 34.5%

·        5^th Avenue Lofts/Security Warehouse Lofts — 29.0%

·        RiverStation Condos — 19.8%

·        American Academy of Neurology — 16.7%

Best Streetscape Greening

·        Central Lutheran Church — 72.3%

·        222 Hennepin — 14.8%

·        The Foundry Home Goods — 12.9%

Best Façade Greening

·        Kenosha Building — 39.6%

·        Fifth Street Towers — 36.2%

·        Seven Event Destination — 14.4%

·        500 S. Washington — 9.8%

Best Entryway Greening

·        Aloft Minneapolis — 47.3%

·        Martin Patrick 3 — 34.7%

·        Cynthia Froid Group — 10.2%

·        Goldberg Bail Bonds — 7.8%

Best Public Realm Improvement

·        5^th Avenue Lofts/Warehouse Lofts — 25.3%

·        Central Lutheran Church —  24.2%

·        IDS Center PARKLOT presented by Bank of America — 16.9%

·        Soccer field at Elliot Park — 14.4%

·        Convention Center Plaza —  8.6%

·        Spoon & Stable — 7.5%

·        The Foundry House Goods — 3.1%

Best Neighborhood Overall

·        Loring Park — 45.4%

·        North Loop — 24.1%

·        Mill District — 22.1%

·        Elliot Park — 8.4%

Best Open Space Green Infrastructure

·        Target Field Station – 56.0%

·        MCTC – 44.0%

For more information on downtown greening, visit www.minneapolisdid.com or follow @MinneapolisDID on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

About the Minneapolis Downtown Council:

Founded in 1955, and one of the oldest central business districts in the nation, the Minneapolis Downtown Council (MDC) is a membership-based entity that works to create, preserve, and enhance a vital and engaging experience for the people who visit, work, shop and live in Downtown Minneapolis. The MDC’s collaborative developments of Intersections: The Downtown 2025 Plan was designed to help downtown businesses, community leaders and citizens build on downtown assets and implement future goals. For more information, please visit www.downtownmpls.com.

About the Downtown Improvement District:

Founded in early 2009, after more than five years of formative planning and advocacy by the downtown business community, the Minneapolis DID delivers higher levels of service to make downtown cleaner, greener, safer and more vibrant throughout a 120-block area, as is the case with most Business Improvement Districts. For more information, visit www.minneapolisdid.com.

###