urbanMSP

Not bad at all. I like the architecture and how building looks. With all the people moving into this area, I wonder if it would be advantageous to put a convenience store or something on the bottom floor.

The development is so close to the train station, it would be kind of cool to have a convenience store with a coffee shop.

Given all the crowds during Viking games, and the amount of new residential in the area, and the close proximity to both light rail lines, I don’t see how a convenience store/coffee shop and wouldn’t work out well.


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No room - gotta have parking.

No room - gotta have parking.

You mean they would have to have additional parking for the store, or are you talking about the ramp and general?


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Wow I wasn't expecting that! Ryan has done great work with this one. Few thoughts

1. Who would want their apartment door to directly access the skyway like they have on the 2nd floor?
2. The person who decided that the residents can't use the ramp should be banned from making decision for life. It's ridiculous.
3. Hopefully the city can get Ryan to remove the 20 parking spaces on the ground level and get retail to replace it.

guys what's a bike kitchen?

No room - gotta have parking.

You mean they would have to have additional parking for the store, or are you talking about the ramp and general?

I meant they decided they needed parking on the ground floor instead of retail. It was sarcastic - I think it's a dumb decision.

Hopefully the city kills the additional curb cut onto 4th St - if levels 3-5 can be accessed from the adjacent ramp, there's no reason level 1 can't be as well.

Just adding the images from the packet.
Stadium Ramp Liner by Eric Anondson, on Flickr
Stadium Ramp Liner by Eric Anondson, on Flickr
Stadium Ramp Liner by Eric Anondson, on Flickr

There's a lot of weird and bad stuff going on here

What's up with the faux cornice on the 4th floor? It looks extremely out of place, and I know their context, but it's still bad.

Do we seriously need to add parking into a parking ramp? With a ramp entrance on 4th!?

I know we always whine and moan about retail and the lack of it, but seriously this is becoming an active retail/restaurant neighborhood. TraderJoe's, Jimmy John's, Bus Stop, McKinney Roe all opened in the past 2 years. Is it based on the Radisson Red not leasing? I honestly still hold onto my suspicion that there's a fear of splitting.

All in all, the mass is okay. A little too dark.

This is a great evolution for the site, I'm glad Ryan are giving up on the office. The Commons needs, more than anything, to be walled in by residential, like Central Park in New York or Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. We might have to wait for the next development cycle to get Hennepin Co. to move off the real estate it owns south of the park, but for now, I'll be happy to see the north end mostly completed.

That said, the design of this project leaves a lot to be desired.

I'm hopeful the CoW will slap down the added parking here. I understand that they have a dilemma on floors 1-5 where their building backs up against the ramp, but that's better seen as an opportunity for a creative amenity (another option would be to make those floors into spec creative office), not a void where the only option is parking. Bringing the parking up to the streetside on those floors is costing them anywhere from 16 to 28 new apartments and two new retail spaces (I have a hard time imaging there wouldn't be demand to be the closest food option to US Bank Stadium, it seems perfect for a fast casual place), it doesn't make sense to me.

That's the big issue, but I'd also add to Grant's unhappiness with some of the silliness of the design. It's always important to have texture in a facade, but not when it's so cartoonishly applied. In general it seems as if this is an attempt to slightly improve some of the least effective design features of the unattractive adjacent Wells Fargo towers. In addition to the fake cornice, I hope the fedora on top of the building also gets reworked into something better.

I hope the fedora on top of the building also gets reworked into something better.

Bwa ha ha, I like that- "fedora"- ha ha ha

Given all the crowds during Viking games, and the amount of new residential in the area, and the close proximity to both light rail lines, I don’t see how a convenience store/coffee shop and wouldn’t work out well.

There's a convenience store and a Caribu in the skyway level of the Wells Fargo buildings. So, yeah. Urbanism or something.

I can't tell if this is built in such a way that the air rights over the ramp would still be usable (maybe it says in the packet, I usually just look at the pretty pictures). It would be pretty disappointing if not.

I hope the fedora on top of the building also gets reworked into something better.

Otherwise the cutesy name for the building will have to be M'ssissippi

I think the stone cornice looks nice and adds texture, but agree that one course of it looks silly, it would be every 4 floors or at least repeated at the very top of the stone section.

Retail is a necessity here. It's crazy to imagine a site so close to the stadium and lining a major new park not to have it.

That's the biggest disappointment and downfall of loring park.

I can't tell if this is built in such a way that the air rights over the ramp would still be usable (maybe it says in the packet, I usually just look at the pretty pictures). It would be pretty disappointing if not.

Pretty certain that the air rights are only for the first bay closest to the parcel. The air rights would have been useful had they been building an office building, which wants a deeper floor plate. But residential likes skinny floor plates, so it makes sense that they'd pass on the air rights.

It's interesting that Ryan would potentially have two fairly substantial residential buildings being built at the same time. I understand that they are a large company, but depending on the timeline it could put a strain on their resources. Makes me wonder if this one might not be further out than we're led to believe.

There's some indications that developers are rushing stuff through the approvals process that they don't intend to build just yet, so they can get out in front of the incoming IZ regulations.

North Bay Companies has three separate 50ish unit apartment buildings on next week's CPC agenda, for example.

It would be nice if they at least covered the ramp with something. I think it'll be great to have an semi-open air food hall or park or etc on the top.

Would have also been nice if the ramp could have had a storefront or two on 3rd St S. All the inexplicable birch in the world doesn't make up for a lack of sidewalk activation.

I don't get how the parking is accessed thru the current ramp. I didn't see that in the plans at all. Just looked like you are hoping those spots are empty in the ramp, so you can drive thru them to the parking for this building.

It would be nice if they at least covered the ramp with something. I think it'll be great to have an semi-open air food hall or park or etc on the top.

I know the architects of the ramp are hopeful that office space or residential will go on top of it one day.