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• <br />is <br />crease inure cummunny, billu <br />Jim O'Brien of Williams -O'Brien, <br />architect for the New Brighton <br />project. The result is bright, welcoming <br />2,200-square-foot buildings with <br />vaulted ceilings, knotty -pine panel- <br />ing, gas fireplace, television, VCR <br />and seemingly never-ending win- <br />dows that welcome the outdoors <br />and community groups inside. • The <br />look is playful. Windows, including <br />two 16-foot panes of glass, climb <br />the wall almost haphazardly, and <br />the ceiling has a stair -step look to <br />it. <br />Visitors enter doors on either of <br />two sides of the buildings to find <br />f vending machines, bathrooms and <br />a large great room that can be <br />j sectioned into two rooms . to <br />accommodate two smaller groups <br />or one large group and seat 50 to <br />55- people. There are rubber floors <br />where skaters tread and carpeting <br />Aere they do not. <br />;Anderson expects to see the cen- <br />tors used fdr Scout meetings, fam- <br />il� reunions, card or book clubs <br />aid neighborhood groups. The <br />structures will open soon at Sunny <br />Square Park at County Road H <br />abd Silver Lake Road; Freedom <br />Park at Silver Lake Road and <br />14th Street; Totem Pole Park at <br />Foss Road one block west of Old <br />OLICCL, Zulu QL •L' VCIrI=" I a&& a6 <br />County Road B and Fairview, fea- <br />ture points, angles and bi-fold air- <br />plane hangar doors with multiple <br />panes of glass. In warmer weath- <br />ler,�.with,jhe hangar doors, open, <br />the building becomes "an open-air <br />pavilion," Bierscheid said. <br />Groups can use the structures, <br />which cost $280,000 each including <br />site work, though the buildings <br />were designed "primarily as drop - <br />in spaces," Bierscheid said. <br />Tom Fisher, dean of the College <br />of Architecture and Landscape <br />Architecture at the University 6f <br />Minnesota, has noticed the <br />Roseville structures; which he <br />finds "really interesting" and says <br />"look like two buildings all <br />screwed and bolted together." <br />Fisher applauds both cities' <br />efforts to provide aesthetically <br />appealing utilitarian spaces. "Peo- <br />ple are looking for places to gath- <br />er as a community that are not <br />shopping malls," he said.- Cities <br />are realizing that quality of life <br />includes enjoyable parks and <br />recreational facilities and these <br />serve everyone. <br />The Inver Grove- Heights 'ac <br />"seem to be taking some 'kit <br />hit every time you turn ,ar <br />and .they don't deserve- that;" <br />Barb. Theirl, a medals.. A <br />Salem Hills Elementary. <br />Merritt, 40,.grew'up'in Miss <br />California and Florida. ' He. i <br />as a regional sales manager <br />company that M4kes ihft <br />h4h-priisure puniM ..traveiiN <br />quently. <br />H3is.,daughters adehded. eM' <br />tary . school in Soutli.*: ".Paid. <br />the family lived theme-,and'hi <br />satisfied' with the schools; tlei <br />said. But that changed aite <br />district opened .the new Ka <br />Education Center. He said the <br />floor -plan there and some adc <br />al bureaucracy were frustrath <br />The family moved to 1 <br />Grove Heights four years <br />When his oldest daughter w <br />ninth grade at Simley, -he <br />upset that she was required <br />some volunteer work related <br />civics class. "There's no such <br />