urbanMSP

Looks like the rest will be dented metal panels and concrete board??

Looks like the rest will be dented metal panels and concrete board??

I guess I can imagine some of the metal panels going up on these apartment buildings could get dented and warped either in the process of manufacturing or attaching them. What really pisses me off is they don't' replace them to create the nice flat metallic effect that is presented in the renderings. It's as if they could give a shit. To me its just shoddy workmanship plain and simple.

Here's what the neighbor to the west looks like (Junction Flats lies just out of frame to the right):

Metro Transit has had developers sniffing around that lower parking lot (the one beyond the buses) in the past, as has the small "Tubs" building I'm sure. Metro Transit owns plenty of land in the area if they needed to vacate that lot. Not to mention a bunch of their employees still drive to work, despite the free transit passes. If the (free) parking were made more difficult/inconvenient (or for bus drivers & essential personnel only), I think many would switch to taking transit...they just need a little shove.


Buses ready for evening rush hour at Heywood Garage by metrotransitmn, on Flickr

Is it too late to ditch the entire heywood garage? Or build along the sides of it or something? The energy it sucks out of the neighborhood is only eclipsed by HERC.

Is it too late to ditch the entire heywood garage? Or build along the sides of it or something? The energy it sucks out of the neighborhood is only eclipsed by HERC.

Good news is that all of the development over here will keep increasing land values and eventually, it won't make sense for uses like this to be located here.

Except they already own the land and don't have to pay property taxes, so where's the incentive for them to give up a centralized location that serves their system well?

Agreed. Not to mention it seems like a lot of people around here want to increase bus service, including a new fleet to serve aBRT routes.

Metro Transit is going to expand their footprint to the NW on property they've owned for years: http://gis.co.hennepin.mn.us/property/m ... 2924230104

Could the street frontage of the existing facility along 6th Ave N be vastly improved? Absolutely.

But to tear down the garage entirely? That's pretty short sighted.
There's no way that the property taxes reclaimed from private development would ever, ever come close to paying for rebuilding the garage somewhere else (not to mention the property acquisition costs of "somewhere else"). All of Metro Transit's 5 garages are at or near capacity, hence why Heywood is expanding.

Except they already own the land and don't have to pay property taxes, so where's the incentive for them to give up a centralized location that serves their system well?

It'll be hard to pass up the incredible sums of money developers will throw at them for those plots.

Except they already own the land and don't have to pay property taxes, so where's the incentive for them to give up a centralized location that serves their system well?

It'll be hard to pass up the incredible sums of money developers will throw at them for those plots.

Forget the taxes, this is exactly what I meant.

I get what you're saying, but if they can't find another suitable piece of land to move this to, it doesn't matter how much money a developer offers. Somewhat related, I wonder where the city is going to move the impound lot to when that gets redeveloped.

Maybe they'll have to build an impound parking ramp.

I get what you're saying, but if they can't find another suitable piece of land to move this to, it doesn't matter how much money a developer offers. Somewhat related, I wonder where the city is going to move the impound lot to when that gets redeveloped.

I figured that site, like many other potential redevelopment sites, solely depended on the realization of the Southwest Corridor project. Unlike Hiawatha or even the Central Corridor, the SW Corridor would have redevelopment potential at almost every station along the way -- large redevelopment potential. This area was the largest, if I remember correctly...

I think I'd rather see the SW Corridor alignment approved, even in its cruddy over-compromised state.

I get what you're saying, but if they can't find another suitable piece of land to move this to, it doesn't matter how much money a developer offers. Somewhat related, I wonder where the city is going to move the impound lot to when that gets redeveloped.

To get into the dangerous business of predicting the future for a moment...given "peak oil", climate change, urbanization, etc, these types of industrial areas are going to continue to become too valuable for the current uses.

I'm not sure that I understand the comment, "If they can't find another suitable piece of land..." Is there a land shortage that I haven't heard about? I'm being cheeky but there are plenty of places that I can think of off of the top of my head that you could locate an office building/maintenance facility for a bus system - first on the list would be industrial areas along highway corridors.

I've argued in other threads (SWLRT) that the area below the highway overpasses isn't great for residential but even that area will start to have too great a value to remain in its current state - the whole thing needs a masterplan with or without the current SWLRT alignment...

I thought there was one, or at least there is one in process (i'd provide a link if I had a CLUE where it would be in this forum).

*Edit: I just Googled it instead: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cped/pl ... loop_index

I'm not sure that I understand the comment, "If they can't find another suitable piece of land..." Is there a land shortage that I haven't heard about?

And I'm not sure that I understand what makes you think that if this particular piece of land becomes super-valuable, that other pieces of land that are similarly located near the center of the region's bus system will not also become super-valuable. Your premise is on one hand predicated on a land shortage, but then dismisses the idea of a land shortage.

Anyway, it's all conjecture at this point. We'll find out at some point in the future, and I'd be as happy as the next guy if this land gets freed up for redevelopment, and if Metro Transit makes enough of a killing selling their land that they can buy new land and build a whole new facility somewhere else and not suffer operationally.

From Friday:


Untitled by twincitizen, on Flickr

So many facade materials! It actually looks like it will turn out relatively well, but I am definitely not sold on using 4-6 different styles of brick/metal paneling/concrete board on every new 6-story apartment building. I think some of the most aesthetically pleasing developments from the ongoing apartment boom use primarily two facade materials (e.g., the Elysian, East River Apartments).

The way the developers in Minneapolis do brick veneer sheets is cheap and disgusting.

They don't use interlocking panels, which are readily available.

Instead every 5 feet you have a straight seam in the brick that runs the entire height of the bricked area.

If they're wanting to show off their quality and workmanship that isn't the way.

Use interlocking edged panels. Not straight edged panels.

Thank you.

The way the developers in Minneapolis do brick veneer sheets is cheap and disgusting.

They don't use interlocking panels, which are readily available.

Instead every 5 feet you have a straight seam in the brick that runs the entire height of the bricked area.

If they're wanting to show off their quality and workmanship that isn't the way.

Use interlocking edged panels. Not straight edged panels.

Thank you.

these aren't panels. the joints you are refering to are expansion joints and are required by code. these are full sized endicott brick.