urbanMSP

Holy cow is someone finally realizing that Washington Ave SE has a north side as well as a south side?

Hooray, more property off the tax rolls that won't actually be used by the University! Maybe they'll finally fix that door that goes into Burger King from the parking lot.

"Arrival gateway"

What this site needs is a residential building of similar height to the WaHu apartments. When I hear "arrival gateway," I fear someone at the U has the idea of putting some rinkydink plaza at that location, which would really degrade the urban feel of that street.

They may go minimalist and raze everything and replace it with a flower pot.

It’ll be fences or foliage walls to block desire paths.

I was going to make the same point that other people made do we believe the U of M foundation has the will power and ambition to build something great here, we know they have the resources. But honestly a little green space at the corner of Washington and Huron wouldn't be the worst thing so long as there WaHu overlooking it with retail.

What are the chances the u could acquire the unused Huron right of way? Or that the city lets then build on it?

I was going to make the same point that other people made do we believe the U of M foundation has the will power and ambition to build something great here, we know they have the resources. But honestly a little green space at the corner of Washington and Huron wouldn't be the worst thing so long as there WaHu overlooking it with retail.

There is "green space" 600 feet to the west in front of the Alumni Center. Come now. Massive intersections like Huron/University/Washington need built edges to feel smaller, not be surrounded by more open space.

What are the chances the u could acquire the unused Huron right of way? Or that the city lets then build on it?

According to the tax maps, the curved part of Huron and the adjacent tracks are owned by the U, so I could see a land swap happening there.

There is "green space" 600 feet to the west in front of the Alumni Center.

At was specifically sold as a "gateway" to campus.

I was going to make the same point that other people made do we believe the U of M foundation has the will power and ambition to build something great here, we know they have the resources. But honestly a little green space at the corner of Washington and Huron wouldn't be the worst thing so long as there WaHu overlooking it with retail.

There is "green space" 600 feet to the west in front of the Alumni Center. Come now. Massive intersections like Huron/University/Washington need built edges to feel smaller, not be surrounded by more open space.

Also the Gophers stadium is surrounded by green space, except the 2221 University building, which is slated for demolition "some day" to be replaced by green space, to give the stadium its proper reverence. And while it's not exactly a park you can hang out, the storm water retention pond on the triangle across from WAHU is full of plants. So plenty of green space here.

I was thinking something more along the lines of an plaza/seating/green space that is part of the buildings design but sure whatever I'm the idiot.

Good news being spelled out for the Stub and Herbs corner

https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/ ... asses.html

Zavadil, who bought the business and real estate in 2007, said he’s been approached by apartment developers “almost monthly” but decided to sell to the foundation because multifamily developers wanted to tear down the restaurant right away. The foundation has a longer-term vision; he said there's language in the deal for a five-year lease extension.

Stub and Herbs takes to twitter:
https://twitter.com/StubAndHerbs/status ... 8124534785

I'm not sure if anyone saw these two Twitter threads but clearly the UMF and United Properties clearly have something really big planned. They want to create a "gateway" district, it's clear they have the land and we know they have the money to do something really great but we'll what the come up with.

https://twitter.com/BuchbergerJm/status ... 2075364358

https://twitter.com/evanrobertsnz/statu ... 1389783041

WOW. That is big. Look at this rendering.
I feel like there are multiple "new downtowns" in the works:
1. NE Mpls is going vertical
2. Stadium Village
3. Soccer Stadium and Snelling-Midway Development (which is traveling south on Snelling)
4. Ford site

Others?
5. South Loop Bloomington?
6. Southdale area of Edina?
7. Pentagon Park (Hwy 100 & Industrial Blvd) Edina?
8. West End in SLP (this has slowed)

How do we support all of these new areas?

It's interesting how Downtown Minneapolis is strongly linked to many of these though either geography (NE) LRT (Midway and Stadium Village and South Loop) or interstate with 394 (West End). Is Pentagon park going to be part of SWLRT? Personally, I like Downtown St Paul to get some of this construction instead of these new areas.

Exciting plans, but I guess I'm a little nervous about their impact specifically at Washington/Huron. As I've said before (probably in this thread?), I think there's value in retaining those three corners of historic retail (SE: 1901, SW: 1905, NE: 1922) in the middle of all that new construction. It really helps to ground the otherwise kind of ticky-tacky street.

It's interesting how Downtown Minneapolis is strongly linked to many of these though either geography (NE) LRT (Midway and Stadium Village and South Loop) or interstate with 394 (West End). Is Pentagon park going to be part of SWLRT? Personally, I like Downtown St Paul to get some of this construction instead of these new areas.

SWLRT won't be anywhere near Pentagon Park and as far as I know there is no BRT anywhere near it either.

Is there a better quality image of that?