urbanMSP

I hope it's actually shiny like that. if that's the case I think it will look good

The light was getting perfect at this point. You can clearly see the digging for the new apartment building too.

Wells Fargo towers downtown east 5-7-15 by bapster2006, on Flickr

5 projects going on here. And a train.

5 projects Downtown East Minneapolis 5-7-15 by bapster2006, on Flickr

Was expecting the blank walk to have been more covered up. Did not see a driveway separating the hotel from the WF tower being a part of this plan. Are we expecting a green wall to thrive on a north facing wall of WF??

Was expecting the blank walk to have been more covered up. Did not see a driveway separating the hotel from the WF tower being a part of this plan. Are we expecting a green wall to thrive on a north facing wall of WF??

I think they may be expecting something to grow there. But let's be honest, nothing will grow there with all the salt they throw down in the winter. On top of that there will be a good supply of exhaust and little sun. In the end there will be a blank concrete wall facing the backside of that Raddison Red forever. But the attempt is valiant, will give them that.

There are plenty of things that grow fine in the shade... And there are plenty of other options to hide a concrete wall, have some optimism!

There certainly are things they can do to conceal that wall -- I'm just surprised that, given the context of that particular site, you'd lay out the mass of the building the way they did. As we'd discussed previously, a C-shaped building with a courtyard opening up onto 3rd Street seems a more obvious site plan.

Anyway, it may be that this is their architectural prototype -- a design idea that can be fairly easily rolled out to multiple sites in different contexts (see the Aloft building on Washington for a similar idea).

Anyone been around here lately during the day? Its so loud and exciting. So much action everywhere

Yeah just biked past for the first time in a while and these buildings really are massive! The renderings didn't do justice to the sheer size of these things

It is an interesting look when you are at 2nd where Portland T's up and to look down the forming valley that the WF twins create.

DSC_1158 (2) by grant.simons, on Flickr

Will Wells Fargo be vacating their operations center at 255 2nd Ave? The 3 story glass building with the plaza.

God I hope so. That building is a blight on the landscape.

I don't think that's going anywhere. It's a data center.

The majority of that data center is underground - I think maybe 4 or 5 floors down.

The majority of that data center is underground - I think maybe 4 or 5 floors down.

They have too much invested in the technology of that building. One of the pluses of the data center is it is a nice secure building compared to the WF Twins.

It is a suck on the streetlife. Could they move it to the burbs instead? OR build something lovely surrounding it? Encapsulate the bastard.

The reason data centers are usually in central locations is because they need to be in close proximity to the communication hubs. Usually downtown areas.

It is an interesting thought though - is that land underutilized - could they sell "air-rights" for development? NYC and SF seem to be the two markets where that is economically justified.

Chicago did it as well for one of their large data centers