urbanMSP

I've been to casinos only a few times in my life, and two things kept me from going back. First, after I'd been at the blackjack table for a few hours, it started seeming routine and not a whole helluva lot of fun. More importantly, half the people around me had that gaunt, desperate look of the gam...

That's exactly the point. City leaders want to see DTE become a neighborhood and an extension of the business district, and they want the new stadium to become a catalyst for this rather than a deterrent. That's a tall order, since there have so far been no NFL stadiums to which people want to cozy ...

I'd be interested in hearing what's happening to the 90 businesses currently in UTEC. Has anything been done to help them find new digs? How many are able to stay in Dinkytown? How many are headed elsewhere? How many will have to close doors because of being forced out? I'm sad to see a bustling com...

The Gopher Way is a great way for the wheelchair bound to get around, especially during the winter months.

By then the heating elements had failed in any case. Salt from the roadway penetrated through cracks and corroded the heating elements. Even with a heat source, heated sidewalks here will have serious life cycle problems with so much salt around. And it's not just salt from the Mall roadway. Plenty ...

I believe that concrete block on the right will become the brick-clad block on the right hand side of this rendering:

I see that second one as something of a riff, conscious or not, on the Sydney Opera House. Cool as it may be, it's super conceptual. The skyline is not Minneapolis, and I can't imagine that undulating roof as retractable.

I think it was razed in the 30s. Depression years, and by then I think it had already been pretty messed up by alterations. The initial blow was Harmon Place switching to auto dealers in the 20s, spurring the rich folks in the neighborhood to head out further.

This is what used to sit on that parking lot. What a loss. Can you imagine this as a restaurant?

I think these complaints about the location miss the main point. Longfellow Station uses low-income tax credits to provide lower rents in units with easy access to the LRT and bus lines. With few exceptions (Emanuel, Boxleitner), the apartment developments followed on this site are primarily market ...

From Wikipedia, about a smaller predecessor to the military version: "In 2009 the developers Aeros claimed the Aeroscraft will be 210 feet (64 m) in length, have a top speed of 120 knots (222 km/h), and a flight ceiling of 12,000 feet (3,700 m).[1][5] News media claimed it could be modified to ...

Terminal suggestions: Over the parking lot near the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Bldg in Minneapolis (at the Fort Snelling LRT station) and over the DECC parking lot in Duluth.

Yeah, right, dreamer.

Okay, let's go totally off the wall here. A few days ago, the Strib carried an article about helium-filled dirigibles being built for military use. http://www.startribune.com/business/168995516.html Very low fuel costs and the relatively small area needed for takeoff and landing distinguish these fr...

Here's more from an article published last November. It mentions Fraser being mothballed and does list the Field House on the possible teardown list. Hmm.
http://www.mndaily.com/2011/11/09/u-buildings-blacklist

I might be wrong about the Field House. It has 4 basketball courts and a running track, not just the jogging track that will be in the new Rec Center. It's rented our for a lot of special events, too.

This is sorta in reply to all the stuff under the Amundson Hall thread about space needs, height of buildings, etc. The U's current problem is too much space, or at least too much of the wrong kind of space. For this reason, in the last couple of years, it has knocked down the Music Education Buildi...

Little Dearborn might not be beautiful, but it's not a junkyard cluttered with rusting car parts either. The guy has been in business for years, which indicates that he's providing a valuable service and doing a good job managing his store. Besides, the shop adds some character to an area that's rap...

By the way, if anyone wants to keep easily abreast of construction projects undertaken by the University, the Capital Planning and Project Management site is a great resource: http://www.cppm.umn.edu/ Go to "Project Delivery" => "Active & Completed Projects" to see what's und...

The U is looking so begin an addition to and partial renovation of Amundson Hall in early 2013 with completion scheduled for 2014. There are pretty tight spaces for the addition and for construction support, especially with the LRT work occurring at the same time. http://www.uservices.umn.edu/purcha...

It seems that the big factor in the long delay before beginning this project is the lease that Xcel holds on office space in Marquette Plaza until 2016 or thereabouts. In that light, I'm thinking that the commitment Opus has to run the parking ramp for two years isn't contractual. It's just that Opu...