Super Bowl's Minneapolis stadium brings a surge in development

New York

THE first time Minneapolis hosted the Super Bowl, in 1992, a solitary sports bar and acres of parking lots surrounding the Hubert H Humphrey Metrodome stood in testament to the stadium's failure to generate private investment in the neighbourhood, an area east of downtown.

But football fans returning to the city to watch the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles compete in Super Bowl LII on Feb 4 are not likely to recognise the area, now known as East Town. The Metrodome, a walled-in colossus that dominated the barren landscape from 1982 to 2014, has been replaced by US Bank Stadium, which opened in 2016. The roughly US$1.1 billion bright and transparent edifice, designed by HKS architects, features a mostly clear, steep roof and has been likened to a Nordic long house, a Viking warship and an ice shard formation.