urbanMSP

Just to be clear, I wouldn't want a skyscraper here, or even something as tall as the Nic on Fifth. I think it's important to be able to look out from the stadium and the park and see the skyline, including City Hall and the signature tower that I'm continuing to be optimistic that we'll eventually see on one of the blocks by the library.

However, I do want a building that's both at least as tall as, and easier on the eyes than, the jail it's going in front of.

The residential component is totally out of context and scale with everything around it. It looks like an afterthought and was meant for a Ryab project in The North Loop or riverfront. I mean, do we really need more high end apartments with the thousands upon thousands coming online in the next couple years? It's a joke and dubious proposal at best.

IIRC I've heard some, including the mayor, mention the importance of keeping city hall as an iconic visual bookend.

Well, that doesn't not make sense I guess. But if you put that scene together by standing on one of the park blocks and holding your hand up to simulate the new proposed building (plus the existing jail) you won't see much more than the roof and an off-center clock tower. Maybe the view would be better sitting in the upper deck of the right section in the stadium.

looks good. thank you ryan for wanting to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in our city. the residential doesn't totally block the ugly jail but it blocks it enough. disappointed about park and portland not being closed. park activity will be cut off and segmented.

I think the renderings aren't entirely consistent - it looks like the residential building that was added is attempting to match the lower floors of the towers but they weren't consistently rendered. I'd make it at least a story taller to hide the jail, though, as others have said.

Also does the 19ish floors shown nix the possibility of the increase to 361-foot towers?

I don't think a height increase was ever anything more than a rumor from one person saying "I heard...".

The little apartment building on the park block does look like an afterthought, though I agree that nothing tall needs to be there...that particular use and placement just seems a bit awkward to me. Did I read at some point that anything built on that parcel needs to include space for a city owned restaurant facing the park? Or am I making that up? That part would be nice.

I noticed that the images provided of existing parks highlight thoughtfully developed one-square-block areas such as Mears Park in St. Paul. This is consistent with not closing off Park and Portland. It's also something that I like! In a cold-weather city like Minneapolis, I can envision much more year-round joy in a downtown park of that type (again a la Mears and Rice parks) than a 2 1/2 block expanse swept by snow and wind for half the year.

I, too, wish that the new residential building were just a tad taller, enough to block off the view of the top of the jail from, say, the LRT station, without hiding the City Hall roofline. But that's a quibble. At present that whole area is a forbidding dead zone that can most kindly be described as a land bank, and seeing these plans takes some of the sting from the feeling that the public has been unpleasantly manipulated by the Wilfs and the NFL.

Interesting. So the original proposal was to have 300+ apartments on the north side of the two office blocks. They're gone now until "phase II" happens. Instead they are planning a short apartment building with 125 units. Sounds like they are hedging their bets with the housing.

I think what's worse than the residential at the end of the park being a little lackluster (I mean hire a cool architect and make it a spectacle, it doesn't have to be tall or block the city hall to be a great bookend to the park.)... is that it essentially isn't an extra apartment building. It looks to me like they've removed the residential component on the south side of the large parking garage close to the stadium AND the residential components one the North side of both of the towers... I think this is a loss if anything... We're getting an awkward residential building on the park, AND loosing street frontage on some major blocks :/

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Some of the PDF's renderings still show the residential, frontage residential buildings on the north end of the towers. I think we need more info.

Interesting. So the original proposal was to have 300+ apartments on the north side of the two office blocks. They're gone now until "phase II" happens. Instead they are planning a short apartment building with 125 units. Sounds like they are hedging their bets with the housing.

Really, they should just put the whole housing component on hold until the market conditions for rental are more clear in a couple years. There may even be some demand for condos at that time. Other than the awkward placement and scale of the apartment building, the main part of the project with the symmetrical office building facing the park looks fantastic. Wish we could get a permanent home for the Farmer's Market in The Armory which would really complement this project and the new Stadium.

It does appear that they're leaving a liner parcel on the south side of the ramp, and building it with a fire wall to separate the ramp from it. This should be a very easy one-sided residential project to to be added in the future -- small scale, degestible scale.

These were always proposed to be phased, and likely will be sold off to be developed by somebody else, so I'm not sure why anybody is surprised by this.

It took me a second to get used to the residential next to the jail, but I think it (or something similar) is an appropriate build-out for that site.

It clearly states in the memorandum to CPED that the south side of the 1500 space lot will be developed in phase 1 into an apartment, but is dependent on negotiations with stadium board. Other three sides will be screened a la the C ramp.

Bookend building to the park looks appropriately scaled. Not groundbreaking, but a handsome structure. We all need to get past our stick-built blues.

I'd expect 'temporary' parking lots until phase II is built.

I honestly don't have a problem with the 6 story condos but my larger issue is having a street that run's directly through the park. This is what's happening, correct, or am I mistaken?

^ Depends which street you'd like to see cut out, and if that's at all times of day or not. Leaving Park open full time but reducing Portland's width and only opening it during peak hours (7-9 AM, 4-6 PM M-F) would only add ~2-3 minutes drive time to people passing through the area (at those hours only). This would be a big win. Probably won't happen.

I'm not a fan of the apartment building. I'm not really a fan of apartments here at all, actually. I think a more park-like building would be much more appropriate. Maybe 2-3 stories, with tiers. You could build part of the park up to ramp up to a second level courtyard.

Whatever they build here, it needs to actually integrate with the park. It should be part of the park, rather than a random building sitting next to it. This is a pretty huge opportunity, IMO. Don't waste it with this out of place crap. Stick built has nothing to do with it.

Edit: Something like the building at the top of this picture: https://static.panoramio.com.storage.go ... 768538.jpg

A great park bookend would be Mosaic II that they're planning in Uptown. Something that steps down to the park and is architecturally iconic.