Metro Blooms has been working with the Riverside Plaza community since 2018 to redesign outdoor spaces for greater environmental resilience and better quality of outdoor living. Through our partnership, we created beautiful community green spaces that manage stormwater sustainably and provide habitat for pollinators. We worked with the Riverside Plaza Tenant Association (RPTA) and owner Sherman Associates to engage with residents at community meetings, workshops, social events and community-planting events.

Resident input has helped shape the designs of several rain gardens that we planted together and that divert and soak in stormwater, helping to prevent pollution in the nearby Mississippi River. The first rain garden on site was installed in 2019 with help from nearly 50 residents, staff, and community volunteers. In 2024, we turned an underutilized open space next to a parking lot into a small featuring rain gardens, pollinator plantings, native trees, benches and walking paths. Community members of all ages turned out to put in the plants and trees at community planting events. The park provides residents with access to nature in the heart of Minneapolis and a place to gather.

One of the rain gardens even has a song written about it. A plaque in the rain garden has a QR code that connects people to “Ayatiin ka bari” (You May Learn),” composed by Ardo Muse, a song about the Riverside community and its relationship to water and gardening. The song comes through Ecosong.

Learn more about working with the community to create the park in this blog post.

Partners: Riverside Plaza Tenant Association, Sherman Associates, Mississippi Watershed Management Organization, Center for Prevention BlueCross BlueShield, Ecosong Team