urbanMSP

They should paint it purple.

I thought they were and Prince was going to make it his Minneapolis home.

That building has an interesting history. There is a very old building under there...a tower was added and it was "modernized" along the way. Even after the tower was added, they street level facade was still in place. Why would they destroy this facade?!?

because it's minneapolis. that's what they do.
i just saw a cool photo of the original building from the 1920s in the mspbj. definitely better than the current facade and anything that would realistically be built new. the rendering of the new facade is an improvement from the modernist facade but too bad the original facade isn't going to be recreated...

Rendering?

Picture must be behind paywall:

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/p ... elift.html

"You won't even recognize it a year from now." That's what I like to hear.

Here's the original. It was an awkward building, from the day it was built.

http://www.lileks.com/mpls/fed/

looks like taking away 3 vertical columns on the facade and keeping the 4th repeated from left to right so that the facade has 8 or 9 glazed frames for each elevation. hard to put into words since i'm not a designer. see april 5th edition on page 5...

looks like taking away 3 vertical columns on the facade and keeping the 4th repeated from left to right so that the facade has 8 or 9 glazed frames for each elevation. hard to put into words since i'm not a designer. see april 5th edition on page 5...

Hard to understand without the visual image. The key to making this look better is to make the whole structure look more transparent and light which it sounds like they are doing by adding more glass. Hopefully, the street level will be less fortress -like and more pedestrian friendly.

From the Strib, of Swervo owner Ned Abdul- " He plans to return the nearly vacant building to its “Old World facade” —it was the home of the Federal Reserve Bank from 1925 to 1973. Beyond that, the 510 offices will be reconfigured into collaborative workspace, with street-level retail. “We’re going to bring the Warehouse District to the [Central Business District],” he said.".

From the Strib, of Swervo owner Ned Abdul- " He plans to return the nearly vacant building to its “Old World facade” —it was the home of the Federal Reserve Bank from 1925 to 1973. Beyond that, the 510 offices will be reconfigured into collaborative workspace, with street-level retail. “We’re going to bring the Warehouse District to the [Central Business District],” he said.".

This will be a wonderful project if Mr Abdul can pull it off.

When we try to do "old world facades" today, you end up with Block E. Unless Abdul has a troop of stonemasons in indentured servitude, you just can't afford to do it well.

When we try to do "old world facades" today, you end up with Block E. Unless Abdul has a troop of stonemasons in indentured servitude, you just can't afford to do it well.

No joke, these intricate old building facades were built at a time when material was cheap, and labor cheaper. Doesn't really happen anymore..

I thought there was a render already released that showed what he wanted to do to the building?

It's too bad that the power of the free market hasn't come up with a solution for that... yes, we no longer have cheap as dirt labor, but shouldn't there be some technology that automates the process that can make cool stonework widely accessible at a good price?? Why should we have to collectively settle for Block E style facades?

When we try to do "old world facades" today, you end up with Block E. Unless Abdul has a troop of stonemasons in indentured servitude, you just can't afford to do it well.

I don't know about indentured servitude, but he has been accused by local unions of exploiting workers.

http://www.startribune.com/business/119 ... ml?refer=y

Abdul and Swervo also have gained notoriety because of an ongoing dispute with the Twin Cities Development Task Force, a group of about a dozen building craft unions that claim Abdul cuts costs by employing workers who are sometimes inexperienced and ill-equipped.

"Everything Ned builds is on the cheap, and he exploits workers," said group organizer Al Kearney of the Laborers District Council of Minnesota & North Dakota.

Kearney said the task force was formed early in 2005 after they heard reports of untrained workers doing demolition at night at the Sexton. The group blamed Swervo, although Abdul said his company did no work at the building, because he already had sold it.

Also, I wonder if Mr. Abdul was able to resolve those federal accusations of money laundering and fraud. Maybe Thielen wasn't a credible witness?

http://www.startribune.com/business/953 ... ml?refer=y

Does it carry any weight these days if a union accuses a developer or other business of "exploiting workers?" Doubtful.

Hardly any weight at all. Exploiting workers makes the economy go 'round. What's good for job creators is good for Amerika™.


Edited for spelling.

When we try to do "old world facades" today, you end up with Block E. Unless Abdul has a troop of stonemasons in indentured servitude, you just can't afford to do it well.

I'm sure labor costs have something (or almost everything) to do with it, but isn't part of it that exquisite stonemasonry fell out of practice in the USA for so long that the skills aren't generally available anymore? This was driven home to me when the U had to send some of the ornamentation from Folwell Hall to Boston to what was reported as the only firm in the country capable of doing the particular work (the details are foggy in my mind obviously but I'm pretty sure it was some stonework).

The real estate market in Europe is clearly different from here (perhaps another factor), but it seems that they are able to produce the same quality of work on new buildings that we only see on historic buildings. I always supposed that their building trades were stimulated by the need to rebuild all of the historic buildings that we firebombed into rubble just at the time that we were tearing down our handcrafted buildings and replacing them with concrete and prefab, so the skills are more widely available there and so are cheaper.

I have no experience contracting for stonework on any continent so maybe this is not real, but it's always stuck in my mind as something that could be a factor.

I didn't realize this developer had such a sketchy past. I especially don't like his attitude towards his workers and unions. I hope he doesn't screw this project up with shoddy workmanship!

I didn't realize this developer had such a sketchy past. I especially don't like his attitude towards his workers and unions. I hope he doesn't screw this project up with shoddy workmanship!

I believe that he is the developer that redid what is now the Quebec building. HE has done some good ones and not so good ones. I think he is the one who had all the problems with the Whitney when he turned it into condo's. But I'm not 100% on that.

Swervo did the Uptown Theater renovation, which is atrocious. I'm not very familiar with any other examples of their work, but I hope that's not typical.