urbanMSP

I'm not a huge fan of the color scheme.


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So here's a (now meaningless) question: why didn't Hennepin County partner with MPS to build a taller/bigger office building on site that accommodated the space needs of both? I have to imagine there would have been some cost efficiency in doing so, not to mention that MPS' future site could have remained on the tax rolls.

I believe the Transitions+ program is already at the South High campus, and for whatever reason the district wants to co-locate Transitions+ and ABE into a single facility rather than continue to segregate them.

CNO is also pushing the district to come up with a comprehensive plan for the South High Campus plus this plus the remaining land, currently in private hands, between 19th and 20th Ave.

There's also a fairly large parking "need" for the ABE program, maybe there wasn't capability to cover that on the current site in addition to all the parking they've already added. That parking crater was reaaaaaaaaaally deep.

Plans for the new MPS building:
http://minneapolismn.gov/www/groups/pub ... 192638.pdf

Mmmm... Half a block of houses demoed for surface parking a couple hundred feet from a LRT station.

I love the ghost biker in the first image haha

So theoretically they want to make that more of a plaza space and only have it be parking when class is in session. Considering ABE is in session basically the entire day (9 am to 9 PM) that's basically all the time so idk.

I would have brought it up when they presented their plans to the Corcoran land use meeting, but a cranky neighbor who always complains about parking was at the meeting and just wanted more more more parking so I think the room was just tired of talking about parking. Also a lot of the concern with this site was how the school district was ignoring the needs of South High so it was a difficult room to be able to give any kind of real feedback to the architects.

Taking a closer look at those plans now, without parking guy screaming in my ear...

CNO has been trying to push the school district to come up with an overall master plan for this South High campus, because South High itself needs serious work. It was built in the 70s when open concept was all the rage, and so it had walls put in after the fact. It's also never had any serious capital investment since then, so it needs some love. The athletic field is apparently a problem, requiring some of the sports teams to be bused to other schools for practice and events [as an aside here, a lot of the parents talk about equity in relation to the sports situation and I guess it's true that other wealthier schools have better athletic situations but I have a hard time relating that to equity when I think the job of the school is education, not sports, but whatever].

So looking at the site plan, I see that part of the underground space is being used for storm water retention, when it could be used for more underground parking (puke) and that storm water retention could go under an athletic field, if there was any plan moving forward as to where that athletic field was going to end up.

T-t-t-t-t-triple post!
Noticed today the last building on the site, the so called Burma Shave building, is now a pile of rubble.

Mmmm... Half a block of houses demoed for surface parking a couple hundred feet from a LRT station.

I hear what you're saying. I'm not too unhappy with the parking I know; I am glad to see that the building will be fronting Lake Street. This may be just the way I'm looking at it, but does anyone else think the building looks a little smaller than the current one?


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Square footage wise it is smaller than the current ABE building, but the current building has a lot of unusable space so they'll be netting more usable space in the new building.

MPS really knows how to build a good parking lot. https://goo.gl/maps/Wk4MWBXTP6o

MPS has picked the worst bike rack possible, short of a wheelbender, for their new facility:
http://minneapolismn.gov/www/groups/pub ... 194867.pdf
https://www.forms-surfaces.com/capitol-bike-rack
People who use mini U locks do not deserve education, I guess.

Also, parking is the active frontage of 1/2 of this entire site, which is sort of sad.

MattAudio,

I agree about the bike racks. It's funny how hard it seems for so many businesses to get something so simple correct.

Although, it's sad to have half of the space serve as parking I live a couple blocks from here and honestly, that parking isn't nearly enough. The current lot overfills onto the local streets and is larger than the proposed lot. The best hoped for solution would have been to include a ramp tied to an apartment complex or etc. Too bad MPS couldn't have been included in the development of their former space a block away. Make the county services building twice as high?

I honestly think I would prefer a wheelbender to that. At least I can lock to it. Should be an easy win for the Bike Coalition or someone, though, unless the architect is absolutely married to that specific design to echo the lines of the building or whatever.

So we've sort of been discussing this project already in the 2225 E Lake thread, since that's where the ABE programming is currently, does this project deserve it's own thread?

Also I'll bring this up at the Corcoran Land Use meeting tomorrow to see if we can get the board to say they don't support those kinds of racks.

Part of the bike rack issue is that neither the architect nor applicant has either taken the time to think about the bike rack specifics or understand principles for what makes a good bike rack. The fact that Forms & Surfaces offers a bike rack and that they are a company that architects go to when spec'ing street furniture lead to this sort of spec. I've seen it plenty of times whether in new construction or when a property manager is adding a bike rack and busts out a facilities management ordering catalog.

My recommendation for resolving the issue would be to bring it up as an issue, explain why, and remove the snark when delivering the message. Snark just breeds defensiveness, which obstructs access to your goal, which is a functional bike rack.

I brought it up at last night at the CNO Land Use meeting, the CNO board is going to talk with Bicycle Coalition and make sure the MBC works with the school district to implement workable bike racks.

I think you're right, they just picked a bike rack that looked good with the aesthetic of the building without any thought as to how it would function as a bike rack.

Does anyone know when the residential part of the first phase is going to start? I live a block from the almost complete Human Services Center and noticed the trucks on 22nd Ave. full of office cubes, furniture and etc this morning. The concrete parking structure isn't all that beautiful and I hope it isn't an indefinite sight going forward.

Green roof going in, nice feature!
http://i.imgur.com/5TPnRA1.jpg