Soo Line Building Apartments - (501 Marquette Avenue)

[lordmoke]

Thanks for all the pictures! It's amazing to see the old ceiling still in there- I hope they can find a way to salvage it. Either way, this project is phenomenal. The more I see of the progress on it, the more I appreciate it. I'd love to see a developer put this kind of work into the Plymouth and Roanoke Buildings, but they might be a bit beyond help.

[go4guy]

Such a cool renovation. Reminds me of all the restoration of old buildings in Manhattan.

[John21]

Such a great old building.

[Nathan]

Windows!

[spearson]

What's really strange is on the opposite side of the building from the above picture they are not putting in arched windows. Instead the windows take up the whole square. Kind of odd that it's arched windows on two of the three sides.

[lordmoke]

What's really strange is on the opposite side of the building from the above picture they are not putting in arched windows. Instead the windows take up the whole square. Kind of odd that it's arched windows on two of the three sides.

That is quite odd, though I have a guess as to why. They received historic tax credits for this building, which means that the exterior has to comply with the building's historic appearance. However, that side of the building was previously met by another building (only about 4 or 5 stories tops) which would have prevented the Soo Line from having windows in that location originally. I guess that means they can put whatever kind of windows they like there, though I would rather they were consistent. Square was probably cheaper.

EDIT: The building I'm referring to, which actually looks to be 3.5 stories: http://lileks.com/mpls/firstnatold/1.jpg

[MNdible]

If what you say is true, it's possible the historic tax credits would have insisted they not use arched windows, so as not to suggest that they were originally there.

EDIT: Looking at the streetview photos of the site, I'd wager that this is the case.

[mattaudio]

Or maybe round windows would remind people too much of The Burger Place, which used to be behind the windows.

[Nathan]

Arched windows also wouldn't have looked as great without all the stone detail work that are on the front and east side of the building. They would have been arches on a flat plane.

[Nick]

I'm not 100 percent sure, but I do walk by this building everyday, and I think they actually had the frames for the arched windows on the Canadian Pacific Plaza side in for a couple weeks and then took them out. Can anyone back that up? I thought I had a picture but it appears I don't.

[Nathan]

Page 8 of the site plans submitted to the city show squared windows on the east elevation... but I don't know if they ever got framed arched for some reason...

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups ... 085244.pdf

[Nick]

All class.


IMG_3549 by UrbanMSP, on Flickr

[mister.shoes]

The skyway from the 5th Street Towers couldn't look more out of place. Wrong style, wrong colors, wrong everything. This building deserves better (read: nothing ).

[MotorCity2TwinCities]

The skyway from the 5th Street Towers couldn't look more out of place. Wrong style, wrong colors, wrong everything. This building deserves better (read: nothing ).

I think the same exact thing every time I pass by this building.

[MNdible]

Do we have any more details as to what's planned for the Skyway level here?

[uptowner]

Do we have any more details as to what's planned for the Skyway level here?

I stopped by the leasing office yesterday and the sales person said the second floor will have some kind of boutique market and something else which I've forgotten. She said the ground floor is going to be a French restaurant with outdoor seating.

[lordmoke]

Don't know if it's been noted by anyone yet, but after close inspection of the renderings, it looks like they will be reconstructing a canopy over the main entrance. I doubt it will be as ornate as the original, but it should still help soften the impact of the hideous skyway a little, and restore focus to the front door beneath it.

[Nick]

Do we have any more details as to what's planned for the Skyway level here?

I stopped by the leasing office yesterday and the sales person said the second floor will have some kind of boutique market and something else which I've forgotten. She said the ground floor is going to be a French restaurant with outdoor seating.

Not that I don't believe her, but I have trouble seeing how they're going to fit any outdoor seating on that sidewalk.

[min-chi-cbus]

Maybe they'll do that thing where the doors are open and a few of the seats are outside, but for the most part the restaurant is inside with the ability to open the windows. Think of Chino Latino in Uptown.

[nickmgray]

Can't wait for construction to be finished so they can re-open the skyway.