HomeMy WebLinkAboutCedars of Edina Donation to City Roundabout
City of Edina • 4801 W. 50th St. • Edina, MN 55424
Contact: David Katz, Communications Intern
Phone 952-833-9522 • Fax 952-826-0389 • www.EdinaMN.gov
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Edina Company Donates Decorative Boulders for City
Roundabout
Edina, Minn., Nov. 27, 2012 – Edina-based Peterson Management Group, which owns and operates the
Cedars of Edina apartment complex on Gallagher Drive, recently made a generous and unique in-kind
donation to the City of Edina. The Peterson Group gifted nearly 35 tons of boulders to adorn a new
roundabout at the intersection of West 70th Street and Valley View Road.
The boulders are a mix of charcoal-colored slate and banded taconite. Each comes originally from a mine
located in Hoyt Lake, Minn., about an hour north of Duluth in Minnesota’s geologically rich Mesabi Range.
Over the past six years, staff at the Cedars of Edina have purchased and installed a number of visually
interesting specimens for the 23-acre re-forested property as part of a larger effort to instill a sense of a
tranquil North Woods resort for residents living just off Edina’s busiest shopping district. Additional efforts
include “rain gardens, waterfalls, quiet sitting areas and pathways,” said Mark Peterson, CEO of Peterson
Management Group. Thus far, the project has required 40 semitruck loads worth of boulders and smaller
rocks like those that can now be seen at West 70th Street and Valley View Road.
City of Edina Director of Engineering Wayne Houle took note of the extensive landscaping and inquired
whether the apartment might be willing to donate a few of the boulders to anchor decorations on the newly
completed roundabout.
Peterson agreed to the proposal. “Boulders add timelessness, mystery and beauty to any landscape. They lend
a feeling of quality and durability wherever they are present,” he said. “Contributing the boulders to the City
and residents of Edina is a natural expression of what the Cedars of Edina is out to create.”
Judging from estimates, purchasing and moving boulders of similar quality and tonnage could have proven
quite costly. Ultimately, the donation “saved the City about $15,000 worth of boulders that we had in the bid
for the project,” Houle said.
In the summer and spring, the boulder installations are enhanced by perennial plants and scrubs. Even in the
dead of winter, though, the boulders’ own rich hues warrant a glance when passing by. “Boulders of this same
type sit out in front of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. They are considered
a natural treasure,” Peterson said.
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City of Edina • 4801 W. 50th St. • Edina, MN 55424