urbanMSP

Downtown condos get early OK from EDA

Wow! Nice project for st cloud! Simple and nice concept.

I wonder if this is the empty lot where there was an explosion years ago? Great project for St. Cloud.

That's the lot where we park when going to the Mexican Village! What ever will we do!? /s

No doubt that is a nice project for downtown St. Cloud. The downtown area there could use a building like this to spif it up a little bit.

It's a very nice project for StC, yes. That stretch of St. Germain from 10th to 5th is really nice—nice to walk along, nice to shop/eat/drink. The parking lot going away for this project is literally the only surface lot on that entire stretch. Aside from the block-long (and horrible) back side of the mall, every single storefront is of a traditional form. That this would bring residents to DT is even better. StC gets a bad rap sometimes, but there's a lot of good going on there. mrs.shoes and I got married in the area and walked from our reception site downtown to the hotel—with a stop at the Red Carpet along the way. It was pretty awesome. Oh, and the rehearsal dinner was at the aforementioned Mexican Village.

My wife goes to a conference every August that's at the St Cloud convention Center, which means we get a few days at the Le St Germain hotel (which is going to be a Courtyard Marriot by next year) and a few days to wander downtown St Cloud and explore. A++ would highly recommend.

I went to college near St. Cloud, and developed an extreme distaste for the place due to the stroad of all stroads, Division Street. I disliked it before I could even define what it was that I disliked. But the downtown does indeed have some charm. It's a shame that the 2009 redo of Hwy 23 did not provide stronger connectivity between DT and SCSU.

Yeah the campus is pretty nice (I end up walking to the Holiday station each time to get some mixers, and the liquor store next to a tanning salon and Chinese buffet, but that highway is kind of a mess.

A perfect example of how attempting to create false dimension on a flat canvas is kind of a fail, too bad they couldn't include any bump outs or architectural features really, but I understand building urban style lofts in STC is probably high speculation and on a tight tight budget.

Dangerous spot for housing. I'd get fat from eating at Mexican Village every day. Mmmm...

A perfect example of how attempting to create false dimension on a flat canvas is kind of a fail, too bad they couldn't include any bump outs or architectural features really, but I understand building urban style lofts in STC is probably high speculation and on a tight tight budget.

They're just trying to fit in with the character of the block.

https://www.google.com/maps/@45.5616799 ... 56!6m1!1e1

St. Cloud got examined by The Economist for how it treats Somali-American residents.

https://www.economist.com/united-states ... -americans

Feels like this is the kind of article Der Spiegel wanted to write about America outside cosmopolitan Minneapolis.

Yeah, they just sent their guy a bit too far up 94.

http://tcbmag.com/news

TC Business Magazine article on St. Cloud.

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the Abbey Church of Saint John the Baptist, which is on the campus of St. John's University (founded by the Abbey in 1883). The Church was designed by Marcel Breuer and completed in 1961. There might be debate about where it ranks, but I think that it's not controversial to say that it would near the top of on any list of the greatest buildings in Minnesota, and one of the great brutalist buildings constructed anywhere in the world.

Collegeville is probably not a place that many people have visited (although it is easy to access off of I-94, just past St. Cloud), so I thought people might be interested in seeing some photos:

















St. John's University has a wonderful campus besides this, with a couple of scenic, wooded lakes, a cluster of older buildings, and several other structures designed by Breuer. It's well worth a day trip.

I went to SCSU and had friends that went to St Johns at the same time so I've been there quite a bit. It's a really beautiful campus.

Thanks for posting the photos. As good as they are, you really need to see the space in person. It's a stunner!