ENVIRONMENTAL VISUAL COMMUNICATION
Reimagining the Mississippi River – Conceptual Illustrations
Mississippi National River & Recreation Area, Twin Cities, MN | 2022
Client: National Parks Conservation Association
LVB worked with NPCA’s Midwest regional office to imagine and illustrate a free-flowing river through the Twin City’s Mississippi National River & Recreation Area.
Historic photos, paintings, and an 1890 city survey map were invaluable resources for understanding the river’s natural morphology before lock and dam construction by the U.S. Army CORP of Engineers (USACE).
NPCA is using the final river renderings and maps in a public awareness campaign to engage the community in conversation about the river’s future in step with USACE’s lock and dam review process.
The pre-dam Mississippi River running through the Study Area ranged from a steep and fast-moving river with rapids near St. Anthony falls, to a shallow, rocky, unnavigable river from the falls to Lake Street Bridge, and then into a braided river with mid-channel islands and moving gravel bars to Lock and Dam No. 1 (LD1.)
Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock (USAF) was closed to commercial navigation in 2015, which impacted the commercial use of downstream Lower St. Anthony Falls (LSAF) and LD1 structures. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), which owns both structures, is planning to conduct a study starting in the Fall of 2022 to determine the future use of both lock and dam structures. One potential outcome is dam removal and restoration of a free-flowing river.
Project Area Map: Click here to visit the NPCA project page.
St Anthony Falls Area, Tenth Ave and Stone Arch Bridge, Henry Bosse, 1885
Lake Street-Marshall Avenue Bridge, (approx. 1890), Minnesota Historical Archives.
View of the Mississippi River from the Soldiers Home, Minneapolis (approx. 1905), Minnesota Historical Archives.
Lock and Dam No. 1
Use the slider bar to view what the river looks like now, and what the historic river may have looked like from this location.
Lake Street Bridge
Use the slider bar to view what the river looks like now, and what the historic river may have looked like from this location.
Lower St. Anthony Falls
Use the slider bar to view what the river looks like now, and what the historic river may have looked like from this location.
Historic photos and paintings archived at the Minnesota Historical Society were valuable source material for understanding the river forms and character before the locks and dams, as well as the 1890 Survey of the Mississippi River made under the direction of the Mississippi River Commission (Map provided courtesy of the Map Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)