urbanMSP

Another thing about the bronze windows, think how they would play against Wells Fargo today and could it have changed our skyline to more of a brownish hue instead of the overall blueish one we currently have?

The one thing that hasn't aged well are those resin pyramids that comprise the "crystal" top of Crystal Court. They have an ongoing difficult time with those leaking and getting milky, even though they are two-ply. I used to work on 8th floor where some of the pyramids stair-stepped right up to our windows. The IDS crew are out there a lot.

I wonder if sometime the material for the Crystal Court atrium couldn't be changed to EFTE like the new stadium??

I wonder if sometime the material for the Crystal Court atrium couldn't be changed to EFTE like the new stadium??

I had the same thought recently, there has to be a way to re-engineer that roof to be less problematic. EFTE I think could work well up there.

Driving past downtown tonight, I saw that the IDS Center lights were alternating blue and green. Any idea why? I know it's Columbus Day tomorrow, but I don't know if that's really the reason.

Probably in celebration of the Lynx winning the WNBA championship.

That makes sense. Thanks!

Noticed the lights this morning and was wondering the same thing. Since it's such a thin strip, the color changes looked a bit odd, but it's nice to see that the new lighting is a lot more flexible.

I've seen several different lighting schemes. Even if the lights are just white, they often change to a colored pattern in the hour before they are shut off at midnight. I do like the twinkling effect.

It's often Red White and Blue the last 15 min!

Hello there. The rendering of the IDS Center was actually taken from my tumblr blog. This was on the front of a postcard I received from a friend. I know that this was one of the architects' renderings, as I studied the building in great detail when I studied architecture at the University of Minnesota. I'm surprised to hear that so many people are a fan of the bronze-colored glazing!

As for exterior elevation question comment, we don't see many exterior elevators because they are more costly, take up valuable perimeter space (you can lease an office with a window for much more than an interior office), and are normally kept in the center of the building for structural and mechanical efficiency.

Off topic I suppose with this question, but why do we not have any buildings downtown lit up in traditional Christmas colors of red and green ? I remember when US Bank on Nicollet was finished it had red and green lights at the top around Christmas and then never again that I've ever seen. Do we have an ordinance that forbids colored lights at Christmas ? Target HQ has had some cool looking displays during the holiday times that I've seen.
Anyone know why more buildings don't join in ?

IDS had Christmas colors. Wells Fargo I think only has the one color. Not sure about Capella. But Target had some nice displays on there.

Yeah IDS would switch from red to green every few seconds.

Wells Fargo would look fantastic in green and red hues for Christmas. Much like the Empire State or Chrysler buildings.

I may be wrong, but I think Wells Fargo is lit up with sodium vapor lamps, giving it its characteristic golden glow. They haven't been changed since the building was built.

Yeah, and the gold MN dolomite stone doesn't look as good in color as the Indiana Limestone of the Empire State and Chrysler Towers... One time I saw La Salle Plaza lit up in green and it looked more baby poop green than bright christmasy green.

I thought we had discussed this visual assault in another thread somewhere. Everybody thinks its cool to have controllable RGB LEDs. It's getting overplayed. I miss the classic glow on top of the IDS.

Colors can be modified enough to get the right color no matter the color of the stone, unless it's black.

My picture is the first result for "Blatnik Bridge Lights!".

But the Blatnik bridge they stayed with fixed "cool white" LEDs for the decorative flood lighting, probably because they're cheapest, rather than a fancy-pants color changing RGB system. They replaced a metal halide outline system where the wiring was deteriorating and they had to be removed for bridge repainting.

I assume the Wells Fargo fixtures are semi-accessible for relamping. They could put red gels on them (you wouldn't get much in the way of green gels).

Since we were talking about the long line of failed or mediocre-at-best projects funded in part by the City of St Paul (Town Square, WTC, Galtier, Lawson, etc) it made me wonder...
IDS was clearly a turning point in Downtown Minneapolis, and not just for the office market. It set the standard (mostly good) for the type of development we see in the core of Mpls. Does anyone know if the City of Mpls or any other public entity backed some of it financially? Or was it completely a private project?