urbanMSP

There was also a mid-century FDA building.

From which the flagpole that long stood on the corner of Washington and Hennepin was left over. It was a fairly nondescript box of a building.

Question: At one time there was a plan for an awful skyway running from the Gateway project to Marquette Plaza. I’m assuming this was replaced by the proposal to run the skyway from the Gateway through the library to 301 Nicollet, then on to 365, etc, etc. Does anyone know if 301 were not to be buil...

I'm puzzled by the frequent assumption that height equals a better building. On this forum, there's plenty of criticism of tall apartment buildings on top of parking podia, and just today there's a good comment about how well the 6-story building at 1500 Nicollet has turned out. Personally, I'm more...

Yes, Nathan, I agree. Enclosing that first floor would make the 21st Century Bank Building a nice part of the city. In general, I sometimes think we're in danger of repeating some of the worst urban planning mistakes of the past, namely tearing down buildings because they look out of date or represe...

And if we enter into a recession, or if lenders merely become increasingly uneasy over concern that one might begin, you can bet that the ranks of pretty buildings that don't exist will grow.

A crew is working on the Finance & Commerce Building today. It looks as though improvements are being made rather than preparations for demolition. Is this structure going to be incorporated into the low-income housing, or is something entirely different going on?

I'm pretty sure the loading zone alley will have to be entirely or mostly plugged on Nicollet because the skyway from the library will cross to 301 at just that spot. I'm assuming that this skyway is needed since the one directly from Gateway Tower to Marquette Plaza appears, thankfully, to have bee...

Someone get a picture of the foosball table inside the shelter in the SW corner before it goes! If memory serves me correctly, this shelter is peripatetic. For a while, there was a pocket park next to the old Masonic Building on Hennepin, right where the new section of the Cowles Center is today. T...

A number of North Loop streets, including Third, the one in the photo, are being reconstructed this year. I don't know if this will involve burying the power lines.

Maybe not no way.

Was able to see some of the plans for the Nicollet Mall renovation. I think a lot of people here will be pleased with what they end up doing.

So, MN Fats, is this still at proposal stage, or is a renovation scheduled?

Does anyone know details about the situation at Thor, which among other things has brought this project to a halt? It's particularly sad that a minority-owned business that appeared to be on a roll and had done so much to revitalize North Minneapolis has, at least for now, gone off a cliff. Here's o...

There's a lot to take in, but these look great (and connecting the Park Ave bike lanes to the trail is one of my personal issues). I guess it's outside the scope here, but if they could include fixing the disaster that is the Parkway/Cedar intersection, that would be good too. The Field Regina Nort...

This is a potential K-Mart moment. You know, when 20 or 30 years from now people complain, "How could this horrible thing have been built...and in this spot!?" and then others dig into the history to explain how it sort of made sense at the time.

The link here is to a great document for anyone interested in how the University plans to manage its facilities over coming years. Of course, the economy and state funding will have much effect on what in fact happens and the proposed timing. Reference to the Clinical Research Building is on p. 38, ...

There is digging on this site. Affordable housing? Let's hope so! I'm interested in hearing how much this modular construction truly saves.

Hey, construction guys! Is it possible to rescue a building with this sort of damage at a non-prohibitive cost? (And yes, I realized that "non-prohibitive" is a relative term.)

This looks okay from the west. From the east, it's boring. I'm guessing the developers thought it was too expensive to repeat the fancy window treatment on the other side.

Much to my surprise they are tearing down quite a bit more of the old Rainbow and strip than I had expected. From what my understanding was from the community meeting last year was that they were going to reuse/repurpose the old building for the new tenants instead of constructing something new. I ...