Nicollet Mall is downtown Minneapolis's main pedestrian and transit corridor, running roughly twelve blocks between Washington Avenue and Grant Street. The city closed it to general traffic in 1967, and a $50 million redesign led by James Corner Field Operations reopened it in 2017 with wider sidewalks, new lighting, and dedicated space for buses and cyclists. The Hyatt Regency Minneapolis has anchored the corridor since 1973, standing near the skyway network that links downtown's office towers and hotels. In March 2020, the mall's usual foot traffic all but disappeared as Minnesota's stay-at-home order took hold during the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Taken March 2020