Subways & Skyways

Date Modified: 03/19/2008 2:11 PM

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    Okay, we admit it. Our climate isn’t as good as Miami or Honolulu. Or Topeka ... or Pittsburgh ... or Peoria, for that matter. It’s better than Churchill, Manitoba, where they have problems with polar bears wandering the streets. But not much better.

Rochester now has a pedestrian subway/skyway system that links large areas of downtown. Between the skyways and subways, it is just possible you won’t have to go outside at all to walk about the downtown. Best of all, it’s a handicapped-accessible system.

Of course, Mayo Clinic visitors and Kahler Grand Hotel guests have been finding their way around Rochester indoors for years. They’ve simply been doing it underground instead of at second-story level, thanks to the pedestrian subway system which has operated since 1921.

The subways haven’t been forgotten in more modern times. They have been expanded and improved. The Kahler Corp. built one linking the Marriott Hotel directly into the foyer of the Kahler Hotel’s Heritage Hall. Another connects the Damon West parking ramp, the Executive Suites Hotel and Economy Inn and the Mayo North building, next to Methodist Hospital.

Another links the Marriott Hotel, the Harold W. Siebens Medical Education Building and the Mayo Building. More than "just a tunnel,’’ it provides an underground environment with an above-ground, outdoor ambience. Gary Hayden, the Mayo Foundation’s head of facilities engineering, describes it as having an "alluvial plain’’ motif, featuring stones, water, water plants and other design elements that simulate the features of a riverbed or stream. Ten large skylights add to the sense of being outdoors.

This subway contains 18,000 square feet of patient support space. The newsstand, pharmacy and travel office formerly in the subway below the Mayo Building were moved to this area.

Best of all, the subways and skyways are connected in a continuous, well-marked route that will be easy for anyone to follow to shopping, offices, hotels, restaurants, parking and the Clinic.

An elevator and escalator complex in the Centerplace office building is the biggest transition point between subway and skyway travel.

In addition to the three new subways, there are major skyways over streets and alleys and connections with parking ramps. All these ramps offer free evening parking after 5 p.m. until 1 a.m. and free parking on weekends.

Hours of access to the system vary but should be open when you need them.

You’ll never experience a hurricane — or even a drop of drizzle — in beautiful, indoor Rochester, Minnesota.