Greening, Trees, and Landscaping

250 Nicollet Mall

The new Nicollet is a green street that offers substantially more tree canopy, providing more shade for pedestrians and reducing urban heat island effects. The designers were inspired by the contrast of Minneapolis’ street grid with the more organic and soft forms of the surrounding Chain of Lakes and the glaciated landscape of hills and hollows, kettle ponds and streams, and woodland groves and meadows that make this part of the country unique. The design strives to bring something of this organic landscape and natural quality to Nicollet through the selection and placement of trees, plants and other natural textures and materials.

Instead of a standard street tree planting design with evenly spaced trees in rows, the redesign includes informal groves of tightly-spaced trees that work flexibly and interchangeably with sub-grade utilities and create unique and special environments with seasonal variety. The Groves include a mix of species, each slender and leggy in form and limbed high for clear sight-lines and visibility. The Woods planting is inspired by the Minnesota Eastern Broadleaf Forest also known as ‘Big Woods’ and has a focus on native species including deciduous and coniferous trees of varied sizes as well as shrubs, grasses and perennials.

Nearly 250 new trees were planted, almost double the number of trees originally on Nicollet. Great care was taken to increase the life span and longevity of the trees including providing continuous root zones with generous volumes of soil, a durable irrigation and aeration system, and careful species selection based on tolerance to urban conditions and salt, hardiness, adaptability, insect resistance, demonstrated history of performing well in Southeast Minnesota as well as notable characteristics such as fruit, flower, and fall color.

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