As part of a consulting team working with the City of Minneapolis, Wenk Associates helped to develop a master plan for the Heritage Park neighborhood. The plan extends the City’s historic park and parkway network and provides up to 900 housing units in the 120-acre redevelopment area, while simultaneously revealing natural systems and processes that were obliterated early in the century. Wenk Associates led a team of civil engineers and ecologists to develop concepts to daylight Bassett Creek as the spine of a parkway that reconnects the area to the city.

In conjunction with the plan, Wenk Associates developed the Heritage Park Water System: Technical Framework and Design Performance Standards to establish guidelines for the management and multiple uses of water systems. In setting parameters for the integration of natural areas sustained by various water sources on the site, including stormwater, groundwater, and baseflow diversions from nearby Bassett Creek, the goals and guidelines for water systems in park and redevelopment design served many functions in the community. These include creating neighborhood enhancing amenities, minimizing discharging non-point source pollution to the Mississippi River; upholding and enhancing the Minneapolis Parks tradition; and restoring a physical system that supports a diverse ecology and increases habitat in the city.