Northfield Downtown Development Corporation

Indeed, for the third year in a row, the college presidents had coffee and cookies with the downtown stakeholders.

Carleton President Rob Oden started things off by telling folks that there were a number of towns in Minnesota that wanted the college to locate in their community. It is his belief that the founders chose Northfield because of the town’s characteristic of citizen engagement.

Oden again reaffirmed the competitive leverage that Northfield’s sense of place continues to give to the college. It was the quality of life that recently helped the college win a global competition for a scarce Arabist.

He then moved to the theme for collaboration: sustainability. Carleton is installing 10 solar panels around the campus, built over the bike shelters. When added to the existing windmill, these panels will help Carleton generate about 50% of its energy needs.

I wonder if we could create a bike shelter downtown, perhaps with public restrooms as part of the structure, with the lights powered by a solar panel.

St. Olaf President David Anderson continued with the theme of sustainability. The recent hailstorm damaged all of the college’s slate roofs and the repair work is viewed as an opportunity for increased energy savings.

It will be interesting to see if the college learns some tricks for improving the energy efficiency of historic buildings.

Both presidents discussed their current big building projects. Carleton continues to move forward on the planning and design of the Old Middle School/Carleton Arts Center/Collabatory, while St. Olaf makes steady progress toward completing their impressive new Science Center.

When asked about bringing the college students and downtown stakeholders together, Oden suggested that there would be an opportunity for powerful cultural synergy between the Carleton Collabatory, the Carnegie Library and the Historic Grand, and Anderson said that students were always hungry for multi-generational activities.

The NDDC is certainly eager to support collaborative efforts to create such a downtown cultural district that appeals to people of all ages and serves all parts of the community.

Tonight is Northfield’s Fall Art Crawl. It’s 6 to 9 pm throughout the many venues around town.

It’s Seeing is Knowing: The Body at the Carleton Art Gallery.

The Congressional Record: Photographs by Mickey Smith at the Gould Library.

Textural Narratives at the Northfield Arts Guild‘s Center for the Arts.

To Make a Mark and Wendell Arneson Present New Work at the Flaten Art Museum at the Dittmann Center at St. Olaf College.

The “48 Hour Film Project” at ArtOrg‘s Moving Walls Gallery.

New Work at Right Brain Ventures Art Studio.

Hot reads for cold nights (or something like that), the season is upon us. Let’s say that it begins this Thursday night, October 4th, 7 pm at the Grand Event Center.

The Bee is Back, or the Spelling Bee Returns, or Come on Down(town) for a Good Time. It’s the 2nd Annual, Adult Spelling Bee, Library Fundraiser. Sponsored by the Friends of the Library, the NDDC, and the Grand Event Center.

Ask anyone who was there last year, it’s a really fun time.