The University of Minnesota, along with M-Health, are about to open a new branch of the Museum of Surface Parking (the MSP) on Oak Street at Fulton in southeast Minneapolis, in front of the new Ambulatory Care Center.
This is wonderful news for those in the local Museum-going community, the site will help 21st century college students in particular study the details associated with the storage of cars, as practiced in 20th century America, taking advantage of the University of Minnesota’s position as a great urban university. The site will be a living laboratory, not just for the observation of other people parking cars in the traditional mold, but also enabling students and visitors to park cars, by themselves, for a small fee. The value for transportation engineering courses is immeasurable.
While other nearby sites, similarly within walking distance of the East Bank LRT station, are being developed with “buildings”, this site preserves the historic open feel of the prairie landscape, while not reducing sunlight for its neighbors.
The Museum of Surface Parking – Minneapolis
This is welcome addition to the collection of Living History sites in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area, such as the Streetcar Museum, Fort Snelling, Gibbs Farm, and Kelly Farm. The parking lot will be open 24 hours a day.
If I can’t drive my car directly into the classroom there’s no point in going.
Also I must resist the urge to add “Museum of Surface Parking” to Google Maps.
It’s not called “Driven To Discover” for nothing…
you stole my line
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Snark I can believe in!
If only there was a massive 5-story parking garage a block away.
It was just a corn field before, right? There have never been dozens of actual value-creating structures on this block, right?
Where do I park my car in order to visit this incredible museum? I’m not coming unless there’s a large parking lot attached.
Ah, free-range parking the way it was intended to be seen. I heard the natives parked their cars here before it was opened to settlement. Someday I want to see the famous parking lots of Europe!
I drove by this parking lot this week and was impressed by its vastness and easy accessibility from the highway. The surface parking lot I was heading to only accommodated a few cars and required me to cross a protected bike lane to enter.
Where do I join the “Friends of the Museum of Surface Parking”?