Landscape arboretum director steps down after 25 years

Peter Olin learned to love nature in the fields and farms of Connecticut where he played as a child, a love he turned into a career.

But Tuesday, Olin ended part of that career, as he stepped down as director of the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum after 25 years of service . University horticulture professor Mary Meyer will serve as interim director until a replacement is found. Olin will remain a University professor this upcoming year.

Under Olin's directorship, the Arboretum has doubled in size and quadrupled its staff, now employing 200 people during the peak summer months, Olin said.

The Arboretum, best known for its research and production of the Honeycrisp apple, has produced several plant varieties, including cherries, blueberries and grapes used in Minnesota wines. The Arboretum is also celebrating its 50-year anniversary as a public garden.

Meyer is taking over the directorship on the 100-year anniversary of the center.

In 1983, when Olin left the forests of Vermont, where he worked at the time, and came on board as the director, the Arboretum had a children's program in which students came to the park to learn basics about plant life.

Since then, the program has transitioned into several other forms of community outreach. The Plant Mobile , an Arboretum van, takes plants and materials to different local schools that can't afford to take a bus to visit the Arboretum.

The Urban Gardens program teaches children in St. Paul and north Minneapolis about gardening and the environment.

"[Students] grow vegetables and have to eat them," Olin said. "Well, they don't have to, but after spending so much time growing them they usually want to," he said jokingly about the Urban Gardens program.

The Arboretum's programs are beneficial to everyone involved, from adults in cooking classes, visitors in the park and developmentally disabled people in the Arboretum's therapeutic programs, Olin said.

"It's therapy because there's physical activity, there's mental activity, there's social activity, and there's spiritual, emotional activity," he said.

Meyer's goal as interim director is to take these benefits and give them a greener spin. She said cutting down on pesticide use, using water more effectively and emphasizing sustainability in general are her main concerns.

Because of her new role, the research and teaching she does will have to take a back seat, Meyer said. The time she'll have to spend on her main research on the hardiness of ornamental grasses will be limited, she said.

New development planned for Stadium Village

A new multi-purpose, high-density project has been announced for the blocks between Oak and Ontario streets on Washington Avenue.

The project, called Campus Crossroads, will be built by Opus Corporation, pending city approval.

If the project is approved by the Minneapolis City Council, the Oak Street Cinema, Campus Pizza, and other Stadium Village businesses will be displaced to make way for a new housing development.

The development will be as tall as the Oak Street parking ramp and will serve housing and retail building, Cam Gordon, Ward 2 City Councilman, said.

Gordon said that larger, denser development makes sense because the location is near to the University, the hospital, and will be near the new light rail line.

Store owners on the current property now are looking for other locations to set up shop. Jim Rosvold, owner of Campus Pizza, one business that will be displaced by the Crossroads project, said since he has been in Stadium Village he watched the area change from an independent business hotbed to an area populated by franchises and chains.

"I think (the Campus Crossroads development) will be good for the Village because it builds density," Rosvold said. "It's sad to see the nostalgia go, but I think in the long run it will be good for Stadium Village."

Opus also built 22 of the 24 buildings on the University of St. Thomas campus.

Construction will begin - if the city approves - spring 2009 and will be complete by fall 2010, according to the Star Tribune.