urbanMSP

I was in downtown St. Paul today and realized that the parking garage at Wabasha and 7th has colorful mesh panels, like another user recommended for Mozaic. It really is a great solution.

I was in downtown St. Paul today and realized that the parking garage at Wabasha and 7th has colorful mesh panels, like another user recommended for Mozaic. It really is a great solution.

A great solution with some added light display to give it some night time exuberance. You would think in Uptown (of all places) the neighborhood would be up in arms about the dismal parking ramp. Ackerberg can do much better than this. There needs to be more design scrutiny of their phase 2 of this project, and they should add some decorative element to the existing parking ramp. Uptown is Minneapolis' most vibrant neighborhood (in a very vibrant city) and there is no excuse for not designing high caliber and quality buildings here.

This thing is hideous. No further discussion on that point required. If I were the city I would force him to make it look better though. There has to be some kind of facade he can add to it to make it look better. To have the largest structure in Uptown be a hideous parking garage. It really ruins the character of the area.

Here is a list of beautiful parking garages. It is possible to make a parking ramp look nice. Either the developer was too cheap to do so or just doesn't have good architects. Either way it makes me wonder if its even worth letting the company develop in the city.

http://www.flavorwire.com/118378/the-wo ... -garages#5

Ouch. They fully intend on building another structure to the East which will block the ugliest side. The rest is well screened by neighboring buildings.

I think they had a grand opening last week with the mayor and other people praising the project. Unfortunately, no one has dared to question the architectural mediocrity of the project. Yes, they did do a pretty good job with the plaza, but it wasn't carried through in the quality of the exterior of building's design. It's an insipid suburban style office building plopped into the middle of the city. It has no context to the character of Uptown as a hip, urban neighborhood. Unfortunately, Ackerberg will probably design something similar for Phase 2.

yea let's ban the developer because the building isn't a architectural masterpiece. it's a wonderful building for it's office users that is adding a lot to uptown. the developer has done a ton for uptown and north minneapolis. doing projects when it wasn't fashionable. doing projects in risky financial times. mozaic required federal money to come to fruition.

it's very difficult to build anything on this scale in uptown with the neighborhood opposition. (remember the first mozaic designs from a few years ago?) that was a cool building but was deemed too tall.

he's a local developer with a good track record of doing quality projects.

Ouch. They fully intend on building another structure to the East which will block the ugliest side. The rest is well screened by neighboring buildings.

I bet you that's why that side is so ugly! Why make it beautiful if it's just going to be blocked in the near future? I feel like they (developers) do that quite often when they think/know that a building will go up right next door. Hotel Ivy has a completely blank wall on the side facing the surface parking lot -- presumably for a future hotel/apartment building?

yea let's ban the developer because the building isn't a architectural masterpiece. it's a wonderful building for it's office users that is adding a lot to uptown. the developer has done a ton for uptown and north minneapolis. doing projects when it wasn't fashionable. doing projects in risky financial times. mozaic required federal money to come to fruition.

it's very difficult to build anything on this scale in uptown with the neighborhood opposition. (remember the first mozaic designs from a few years ago?) that was a cool building but was deemed too tall.

he's a local developer with a good track record of doing quality projects.

Wasn't that building ALSO 10 floors? Couldn't be more than 12 -- I feel like I'd remember if it were. Just goes to show you that the neighborhood doesn't always know what's best -- no offense!

yea let's ban the developer because the building isn't a architectural masterpiece. it's a wonderful building for it's office users that is adding a lot to uptown. the developer has done a ton for uptown and north minneapolis. doing projects when it wasn't fashionable. doing projects in risky financial times. mozaic required federal money to come to fruition.

it's very difficult to build anything on this scale in uptown with the neighborhood opposition. (remember the first mozaic designs from a few years ago?) that was a cool building but was deemed too tall.

he's a local developer with a good track record of doing quality projects.

Yes, they received federal stimulis money to subsidize the project, so it may not be as "risky" as you think for the developer. I doubt they have to pay it back! Look, I am being very polite when I say this is not an attractive building. They will need to do better with phase two.

This thing is hideous. No further discussion on that point required. If I were the city I would force him to make it look better though. There has to be some kind of facade he can add to it to make it look better. To have the largest structure in Uptown be a hideous parking garage. It really ruins the character of the area.

Here is a list of beautiful parking garages. It is possible to make a parking ramp look nice. Either the developer was too cheap to do so or just doesn't have good architects. Either way it makes me wonder if its even worth letting the company develop in the city.

http://www.flavorwire.com/118378/the-wo ... -garages#5

Half those parking garages look like crap too. You cannot mask a parking garage. Mosaic is better than most of those for the very reason that it is not actually on a major street. It is fronted by 4 story buildings which hide the majority of the ramp, and phase 2 will cover up the portion that is mostly exposed. I love this building for the fact it adds much needed parking and is trying to bring in good commercial office space. Something that is highly needed in Uptown to bring daytime traffic to the area. And the office portion of the building looks just fine. This building is set back 100 feet from any street and is behind other buildings. Doesn't need to be the grandest of all buildings. I think it just what that crappy little vacant parking lot needed.

I don't get the gripping about Mozaic. Its cement so it will age well. It has a public plaza with public art. It adds parking to an area that desperately needed it. Parking that is set back and hardly noticable, blending with the transit that already moved through there. It adds high end office space, raising the neighborhood tax base. It looks much better than the suburban commercial complexes. Those that consider it bland, don't look beyond that fact that a good percentage of uptown business is high chain restaurants. I think Mozaic does its duty by offering solutions to needs that the area has and not alienating any of the other businesses that already exist. Honestly, I am so happy this project was, it will be a major benefit to uptown and the community at large.

FYI the Federal money for Mozaic does need to be paid back - it was gap financing, not a grant.

Hopefully, phase two of Mozaic will look better. It will not have a parking ramp which will be an improvement by default. The first floor of Mozaic will feel better once the restaurants move in and there is more human activity at the street level. And the plaza is a nice addition to Uptown. I realize they could not insert the colored glass panels as planned because of air circulation issues inside the ramp. What they should have done is directed the architects to plan another decorative scheme (to replace the missing colored panels) since it didn't work out as planned. It was unfortunate they chose not to do this.

I'm starting to think that color panel thing was intentional. Meaning, I think the developer/architect KNEW that a parking ramp would need to be air permeable and that any outside paneling couldn't restrict airflow to the garage, so if they put it in their rendering they could "sell" the project to the city/neighborhood and seemlessly "have to" remove the colored panels for safety reasons.

I don't buy the fact that they didn't know or consider a very basic rule for parking garages. Maybe I'm just being the conspiracy theorist....

I don't think it has ever even been stated that the reason for the panels at least looking less obvious than they do in the renderings was because of air flow? I am pretty sure that was just someone on this forum's guess? I feel like maybe they just made the renderings pretty...the rest of the building doesn't look as nice as the drawings did either. Who knows. I do like the plaza.

The problem is that this is uptown's tallest building right now. Let a few nearby developments surpass its height (although that is asking for something in Minneapolis), especially phase II on this lot, then it will blend in more.

The problem is that this is uptown's tallest building right now. Let a few nearby developments surpass its height (although that is asking for something in Minneapolis), especially phase II on this lot, then it will blend in more.

I agree with you. When "City Walk" on the Cowboy Slims parcel and phase two of Mozaic is built , the building will stand out less. It needs some buildings who are peers (in height) to soften its scale. Mnmike is right too. The renderings of Mozaic one made the building look much better than its final result. BKV architects seem to be clever at that. They did the same thing with their Lake and Knox apartment project which ended up looking like parts of it were made out of cardboard. To me, the details of these projects need to be scrutinized more closely by The Planning Commission. Even if there isn't much they can do about it, at least they go on public record criticizing the quality of design. The community really deserves this. The developers are invested for a couple years in their projects, but the neighborhoods and city have to live with these buildings for a long, long, long time.

FYI the Federal money for Mozaic does need to be paid back - it was gap financing, not a grant.

Yeah, it's basically a loan from the city. It needs to be paid back. I made that mistake on a blog post of mine and really got burned (e-mail from the developer). In anyone's defense who thought that was the case - it's nearly impossible to find really good solid info on this stuff. The Strib/Pio glosses over fine points (and maybe they should b/c most people don't care) ... and community papers are hard to keep up with (especially if it's something like the Villager).

Anyway - long story short, it's a loan from the city that needs to be paid back.

F-C story today: http://finance-commerce.com/2012/08/the ... of-mozaic/

It mentions that Phase 2 pre-leasing will begin when Phase 1 is 80% leased. Also says that it will have 2 floors of underground parking and is already being designed. I wonder what they have in store...

Presumably more office space. I don't know if we need more retail/restaurant space that doesn't front Hennepin or Lagoon. With Phase 1 and City Walk, that's a lot of new primo restaurant sq footage. I'd be hesitant to add even more.

At 57% leased it shouldn't be too long before phase II starts.