The Agate Bay waterfront has a rich past as a working waterfront serving the iron ore and coal industries. Today, it stands as an open public space adjacent to the town’s commercial core, offering the remnants of the harbor’s industrial past, as well as access to a lighthouse, a decommissioned 19th-century tugboat called the Edna G., a boat launch, a beach, coastal hiking trails, and ample vantage points for observing lake faring vessels.
For over 50 years, Two Harbors residents have worked to connect their waterfront to the community by improving infrastructure, safety, and accessibility. Those efforts have waxed and waned, with various plans developed but never implemented. Ownership of the site - previously an industrial railyard, then owned by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources - has also hampered local efforts to move forward. With the property transfer from the state to the City of Two Harbors in 2024, the opportunity to shape the waterfront for more direct, local community benefit has arrived. The Friends of the Waterfront, a new grassroots organization, has emerged to take on waterfront development for their town.
Friends of the Waterfront has a clear mission statement: “That as a community, we can transform the Two Harbors waterfront from a brownfield with safety hazards and barbed wire fence into a functioning landscape that brings traffic into downtown and builds pride in our community.” With local resident Jolene Brink as lead, this organization is taking on the roadblocks that have stopped past development plans from moving forward as they seek an actionable waterfront plan. Acceptance as a CIRD local workshop community in 2023 coalesced local efforts. The emerging concept, known as the Agate Bay Community Plan, will offer and do the following:
Site Visit: Two Harbors welcomed CIRD staff with open arms during a September 2023 site visit, as the team gathered early input and built rapport with community leaders. The site visit included meeting with the project team and community partners and stakeholders, exploring and documenting the waterfront’s notable sites and natural features, and learning more about the existing infrastructure that will impact design concepts for this former industrial waterfront.
Virtual Engagement: After an energizing site visit, CIRD staff scheduled ongoing meetings to plan for the June 2024 local design workshop. Friends of the Waterfront shared regular updates on their workshop planning and CIRD team members offered technical assistance in preparation for the workshop.
Woven in between event planning, monthly virtual gatherings with fellow CIRD cohort members, and promotion of their event, Friends of the Waterfront created and distributed a survey soliciting community ideas for the lakeshore development plan. Shared through residents’ utility bills, this survey gathered insights from community members, including voices that might have gone unheard during town meetings or other engagement strategies. The survey revealed that community members are particularly interested in better access to fishing, educational programming, native landscaping, and the view. For details from the survey check out the workshop Design Book.
The survey results were shared with the Two Harbors City Council in January 2024, and the data helped CIRD to develop a preliminary design concept while refining options to present to the community during the in-person workshop. Friends of the Waterfront’s blog also brought transparency throughout the process.
CIRD Local Design Workshop: June 10–12, 2024 The workshop launched with impressive community turnout. With the Moose Lodge as a home base, community members had the opportunity to visit the tables with community maps and post-it notes, ready to weigh in on what design possibilities resonated most while talking with the CIRD resource team. The workshop activities were led by a combination of local residents, including Jolene Brink of Friends of The Waterfront, along with Jen Dietrich, Kirsten Cruikshank, Karen Howard, Kristen Pless, John Rashid, and Steve Waring. The local team brought perspectives grounded in architecture, art, and planning.
The CIRD resource team included Hillary Presecan with the Housing Assistance Council; Omar Hakeem with To Be Done Studio; Ben Stone with the National Endowment for the Arts; Griffin Snyder a Harvard Graduate School of Design Fellow working with CIRD for the summer; and architects Daniel Yudchitz and Nik Weller with Leo A. Daly. The Leo A. Daly team brought extensive waterfront design and development experience in the region to the workshop.
The focus on day 2 of the workshop included a debrief from the previous day and creating designs and drawings to capture what Two Harbors residents shared. The CIRD team focused on the illustrated renderings for the day 3 presentation to the community, as well as capturing key themes collected from day 1 community input sessions and researching case studies of similar design challenges in the region and nationally.
The workshop concluded on day 3 with the CIRD team presenting design concepts developed from local feedback and a framework of the next steps for the design process. Community members shared detailed input on the design ideas, equipping the design team with additional insights to incorporate in the final workshop design drawings.
The local design workshop yielded several clear priorities for the development of the Agate Bay waterfront:
Enhance the Gateway Connection to the Downtown - The community shared how vital it is to have the waterfront be connected to downtown and its recreational trail system, with accessible parking and sidewalks.
Embrace History & Look to the Future - Two Harbors community members would like to see existing physical features - such as the coal dock and rail line, fishing shacks, Edna G tugboat, and veterans memorial - remain and find new life in the design. Additionally, the community wants to use the space as a way to celebrate the working harbor and bring Indigenous representation to the lakeshore.
Enhance Access and Connectivity - Community members noted the importance of having clear wayfinding throughout Agate Bay, with accessible parking, beach access, connection to new and existing trails, and multiple restroom locations, as well as creating conditions for safe access to the waterfront for all.
Create a Focal Point for Activity - Agate Bay could become a hub for community activity by creating a “Swiss army knife” space - a pavilion where outdoor events, weddings, and live music can take place. The building could also be used for people to rent outdoor equipment like bikes, cross-country skis, and ice skates, and include a splash pad for summertime play. The pavilion could be used for all four seasons, with both environmental education and community activity spaces included.
Explore Program Potential Throughout the Park - Community members asked for walking and biking trails with educational and historic signage, wildlife programming, a play space for children, a variety of educational programming for children and youth, and public dog parks.
Supporting Ecological Health on the Waterfront - There is a strong interest in maintaining natural habitats with native plants, preserving wetlands and woodland areas, and promoting resilience by preventing shoreline erosion.
With feedback from the workshop presentation, the CIRD resource team delivered a design book with drawings, resources, and relevant case studies. With the design book in hand, Friends of the Waterfront will continue to move the Agate Bay Community Plan forward. They have already applied for a competitive opportunity with the University of Minnesota’s Empowering Small Minnesota Communities program and received program support to build out an implementation plan based on the CIRD design concept.
Additionally, Friends of the Waterfront and community supporters will seek additional support from the Two Harbors City Council while continuing to build partnerships throughout the community and region.
To learn more about the Two Harbors design challenge, check out the design book.
