“Village on the River” now “Village for Vehicles”

Architectural tragedy has struck downtown Sioux Falls. What started out with high hopes and ideals to be a vibrant new hi-rise(ish) development downtown has had a major hiccup… well, honestly… more like an amputation. The Village on the River project, which was a partnership between the City of Sioux Falls and developer Village River Group generally providing a parking ramp obscured and built over with mixed use development of offices, retail, and hotel (details in the linked article above) is now going to be left as an unfinished concrete parking ramp; one that was never designed to be just a stand-alone parking structure.

This is not good for downtown Sioux Falls (nor would it be good for any downtown). This ramp alone was never intended to provide a vibrant street presence and certainly doesn’t lend to a pedestrian atmosphere (other than providing a place for people to park and then walk from). The details are still unclear as to the next steps forward, but this can’t be left as is – something must be done.

From a design standpoint, it presents an interesting challenge – as I understand it, the ramp was designed to accommodate a building adjacent to and additional stories above, which provide an amazing set of constraints to start working with. Unfortunately, bad press will surely not encourage many – if any- to step forward and offer new development proposals and solutions. It will be interesting to watch how this moves forward, hoping that this isn’t where the story ends.

Share your thoughts in the comments below on the development, and maybe what you’d like to see done with/to/around this ramp to help integrate it better into the downtown fabric.

2 Replies to ““Village on the River” now “Village for Vehicles””

  1. I believe this was supposed to be the largest public/private partnership in the state. It would be interesting to see how successful partnerships have worked in South Dakota in the past, if there has been any?

  2. I would think the City would reissue an RFP to finish the private section to a certain set of criteria to support the ramp now and 30 years down the road. Perhaps a two tower structure with hotel in one and condos in the other. Either way the City better get creative in both it’s pitch and how they structure the deal

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