ROCHESTER, Minn. – The City filed a lawsuit against the company that designed a relatively new city parking ramp because, the city says, the company failed to plan for a 10-story addition to be added on top in the future. Collaborative Design Group of Minneapolis had the contract for the six-level ramp. The structure, known as Ramp 6, downtown at 59 First Street Southeast, opened in 2019 and is safe for parking but, it was learned later, lacks sufficient lateral support to be built higher. The city claims it specified that the ramp needed to be the foundation for 10 additional floors for affordable housing. The building was a design challenge because, among other unconventionalities, it needed to accommodate an existing industrial railroad spur inside the ground floor.
Lacks strength to grow upward. Ramp 6’s first-level arch is for Canadian Pacific railroad freight cars being switched to industrial rail customers on Rochester’s South End.