Downtown Duluth transportation center design has new look
September 11, 2012 at 7:00 pm in Duluth News Tribune
There’s a new look to the planned transportation center in downtown Duluth. It’s all about blending in.
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Downtown Duluth transportation center design has new look
14 Comments
Original design was much more appealing but this is Duluth afterall, and it would be criminal to move into the 21st century downtown. Never! Example of how too much discussion, too much thought from people who have too much time on their hands resulted in negative input and bad decision making – AGAIN!
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Right…because only ‘the beautiful people’ will be using public transportation.
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The city of Dulluth determines who the beautiful people are. Some people might not be acceptable to the city council and be baned. You never know when it will be your turn.
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From the simple observation of those waiting at the Holiday Center for the bus, this new bus stop is missing industrial sized ashtrays needed for the amount of smoking.
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It makes sense to do this. Every city that has more than, say, 10,000 people has a transit center such as this and it’s placed in the city center. Minneapolis has theirs right near 9th and Hennepin, with access to city buses and soon the light rail. Detroit opened up the Rosa Parks Transit Center just two years ago where both the Amtrak trains and Greyhound buses as well as city buses all meet. Across the border in Windsor, Ontario they have a brand-new international transit center that links Greyhound Canada and Via Rail with it’s US versions, making it much more convenient, especially in the winter – before, if you were going from Toronto to Chicago, you would have to take the train from Toronto to Windsor, then figure out a way to get across the border into Detroit on your own, then figure out where the Amtrak was because it wasn’t downtown (so about a $55 cab ride later) you got to sit and wait for 8 hours for a train. This just makes is much easier and safer since so many passengers are elderly or lower income.
In Duluth, I never understood the sense of putting a bus station in a residential and high school neighborhood that was so far from downtown that people either didn’t know where it was, and once they arrived in Duluth, didn’t realize that downtown is another 40-50 blocks away (if you arrive on the last Greyhound Bus, there are no city buses running to downtown). This way, everything is centered downtown, nobody’s wandering around residential neighborhoods with nowhere to go, and it’s a lot harder for kids to be tempted to just run out of school and hop the bus to Minneapolis or Chicago. Plus (at least in Windsor) the security is similar to the airports, where your bags go through the x-ray conveyer belts, so that upgrade in security is never a bad thing. Only thing in Duluth, as many of us know, is we’ll believe it when we see it.
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The new design fits in with Downtown far better than the original plan.
Duluth is a tourist town with a historic feeling, capitalizing on that is far more important to the local economy than building a shiny modern metallic building that will end up looking like junk in 20 years. (E.G. the downtown library building)
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Bauer hit the nail on the head.
While I did like the look of the original design, I felt it would clash strongly with the overall look of downtown. Granted, Amsoil arena would mesh well with the original design but we don’t need another eyesore. Though I wouldn’t quite classify the Library as one.
Either way, we need a central hub for transportation. This city is not designed for mass transit and this should alleviate some of that issue.
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OMG that library is just awful. There shouldn’t even be a building there. Should be a park so you can see the Depot from Superior Street.
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You don’t like the design of the library? It was built to mimic the round part of the starship Enterprise from Star Trek.
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Not sure if kidding… but it was designed to look like a Ship. Not a starship, mind you, but a ship ala William A Irvin.
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I am so happy we are so rich and willing to give our money away…
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I agree with David Anderson that the central public library is ILL SITED but I disagree with his opinion of the building’s design. I think it is fantastic – even iconic. Is it as beautiful as the “Depot”? In my eyes – no way!
The decision to redesign the exterior of the transit hub and the prevailing opinion on here are symptomatic of a city in decline. Clinging to the past. Only looking backward or treading water to maintain the status quo
Prosperous cities that are going places are those that are dynamic, energetic, progressive and evolving. You cannot live in a fantasy world. It wasn’t long ago that nobody gave a **** about Michigan St.
How is Duluth going to move with the times if nothing can change from the present?
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