What is a skyway?
Glancing through my stats, I notice a number of hits from around the world -- China, Argentina, Vietnam, Peru, Alaska. I get myopic, writing this blog for the reader who
uses the skyways. But it seems I have quite a few who have never been near one. So this is for them.
This view is from the south end of a skyway connecting the Marriot Hotel and Macy's Department Store. In the photo you can see a covered bridge, about 70 feet (20 meters) long, between the second floors of the two buildings. The bridge is carpeted, awash with light from floor to ceiling windows. It is 12' high, climate controlled, and wide enough, per the original requirements, to prevent "elbowing and jostling" by other pedestrians. The building regs also require that the skyway look level from the outside, even if it slopes in reality between second floors.
Skyways do not host vendors or services. They do
connect lots of retail establishments, with a broad range of services, that are located in the promenades between skyways within the participating buildings. But the skyways are strictly for pedestrian transport. Carts and dollys, etc are discouraged, and pets and smoking are not allowed. Music is somewhat tolerated.
If someone wants to stage a marketing event or
film part of a video or movie, permission must be granted in advance. While the city does not own or manage the skyways, they convene a
Downtown Skyway Advisory Comittee. Someday I will find out what they do. Despite these constraints, we manage to put on fairly elaborate, if peculiar events within their confines. Each year there is a
miniature golf tournament featuring corporate-sponsored holes, which tend to offer
elaborate mechanical metaphors.
Now here is the cool part. This skyway is owned and maintained by Marriot...right out to the middle. From there, the management is done by Macy's. No two skyways are exactly alike, and many of them are distinctive in their own way. At least one was designed by an internationally famous artist - Siah Armajani.
The degree of climate control is somewhat arbitrary, and in tight budget times you can still work up a sweat hiking through the maze. According to the general guidelines, a skyway cannot get hotter than the outside air in the summer, and can't get colder than shirt-sleeve temperature, around 60' as I recall, in the winter.
The first skyways cost around $70,000 and a new one run towards and slightly past $1,000,000.
There are now 82 bridges. They are classified "bridges" because the Minnesota Department of Transportation assigns them a specific bridge i.d. and they must pass inspection each year or so.
82. That is one more than the number of chapters in Lao Tzu's book "The Tao de Ching" -- the "book of the way." Which gave me the inspiration for the title of this blog. The way of the skyway.
And that's just the beginning.
