urbanMSP

Looks like this has been submitted for final approvals. PUD with 345 combined units of housing.

Boom! Comes before the CPC next week: https://lims.minneapolismn.gov/download ... %20Ave%20N

345 housing units, 322 car parking spaces, and 383 bike parking spaces. The project is spread out over three buildings. There are four separate commercial spaces that are somewhat oddly placed because of the constraints of the buildings. A couple seem obviously intended for restaurants. The new construction building on the parking lot at the north corner of 3rd St and 7th Ave will have a single 17,757 square foot retail space. I assume they already know who that tenant is, that seems like an extremely large retail space to be building on spec. A smaller format grocery, perhaps an Amazon Go (that's the one where there's no checkout), would be an enormous bonus for this area.

I have one design concern with this project, which is that the passageway between the new building and the adjacent Sable apartments/parking seems under-designed. The renderings show it as an unadorned alley, dubiously much lighter than would actually be the case. Even some fairy lights strung up between the two buildings here would make a big difference.

The site plans show this alley space as being much tighter than the renderings suggest. It will not be pleasant -- I wonder if it will actually be gated off?

The site plans show this alley space as being much tighter than the renderings suggest. It will not be pleasant -- I wonder if it will actually be gated off?

Between Duffey 2.0 and Sable? It's 10'-4" wide, that should be plenty of space.

Aerial renderings are hard to scale appropriately, speaking from experience.

Between Duffey 2.0 and Sable? It's 10'-4" wide, that should be plenty of space.

Plenty of space for what? To walk down? Or to make it so it's not an oppressive and unsafe-feeling space?

...oof ok let's back off a bit.

Walk down. It's about the size of the alleys in 50th and France.

To be clear: the width of the alley is not my concern, the lack of lighting and/or color is. Again, I think it's an extremely cheap fix.

...oof ok let's back off a bit.

Walk down. It's about the size of the alleys in 50th and France.

Back off? I'm not sure why. This seems like a totally valid site plan issue to talk about. If you interpreted something personal in my post, I assure you that it wasn't intended.

The issue is that it's a 150 foot long space that's 10'-4" wide without any active uses, surrounded by blank wall faces that are over 50' high. It's bad urban design, and fairy lights aren't going to fix it. It may be unavoidable, but there probably should be a better design solution for situations like this.

I meant to say back up* my bad.

Thr3 Jack at least breaks the last 50 feet of the space by wrapping their storefront back, but the only solution for Duffey 2.0 would be to reconfigure their entire parking layout, which just won't happen. Maybe this space would have been nice if we didn't feel we need to rely on cars as much as we do, and we could put cool small bars in there that activate the alley space. I think regardless of activation, pedestrian alleys like this that make maneuvering around the city are crucial, and don't always need to be full of activity.

I meant to say back up* my bad.

Thr3 Jack at least breaks the last 50 feet of the space by wrapping their storefront back, but the only solution for Duffey 2.0 would be to reconfigure their entire parking layout, which just won't happen. Maybe this space would have been nice if we didn't feel we need to rely on cars as much as we do, and we could put cool small bars in there that activate the alley space. I think regardless of activation, pedestrian alleys like this that make maneuvering around the city are crucial, and don't always need to be full of activity.

There are a few restaurants in the North Loop that already use their alley space. Maybe they can take a lesson from them?

This is back before the CPC. Thirteen units have been added and the fifth floor setback on the new building has been pushed forward to be flush with the rest of the facade. Both changes are positive imo.

I'm anxious for this project to get underway. The location of this project will transform what's something of a dead-zone in the North Loop into a really exciting area along N 3rd Street that should be naturally pedestrian and retail friendly.

Under construction
https://finance-commerce.com/2022/08/co ... uffey-2-0/

Damn. No more rink.

https://twitter.com/urbanevesen/status/ ... 3464898560

Extremely lol if the HPC ends up saying "no, you must build a rink". They won't, but it would be very funny.