urbanMSP

It's just a bad rendering. Maybe we'll know more after they meet today.
Does anybody know what's going on at the corner of 4th st se and 8th ave se? It's where that park is near the 35W ramp.
There's caution tape all around, a trailer and porta potty on site.

Saw that too. Pretty certain it's this: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=752

It's just a bad rendering. Maybe we'll know more after they meet today.

I thinking it may be a bad or distorted rendering too. I do like this project filling up another vacant lot.

I talked to the architect at the NE Neighborhood Fest and the first few floors are going to be parking. The windows are bigger to hide the cars. Not sure how I feel about that.

I took some photos of the renderings / model at the third ward neighborhood fest. I took these with my phone, so I apologize for the poor quality.


20121010_190838 by dmd.hashw, on Flickr


20121010_190832 by dmd.hashw, on Flickr


20121010_190819 by dmd.hashw, on Flickr


20121010_190851 by dmd.hashw, on Flickr

So it's not a bad rendering, just a hideous design. Huh.

That 2nd photo is consusing.....which building would be the new one (left or right, or both)? If it's the left it doesn't look so bad.

Thanks for the shots, btw!

The one on the left is clearly the existing United Labor Centre building.

https://maps.google.com/?ll=44.987506,- ... 13,,0,-4.6

I'm never really a fan of parking like that, but if the windows are dark enough to hide the cars, I'll say it could definitely be worse.

Is there ground floor retail on the University side? If that's the case, then it isn't as offensive. I'm excited for the lot to be utilized even if I'm still iffy on the design. That neighborhood needs residents!!!

Excited to see a new development for this area. The design isn't the best, but it's a million times better than the surface parking lot it is replacing. If i could change one thing, I'd add a few small retails store fronts on the University side so that the building can pull some pedestrian traffic south of central.

Is there ground floor retail on the University side? If that's the case, then it isn't as offensive. I'm excited for the lot to be utilized even if I'm still iffy on the design. That neighborhood needs residents!!!

That area you're talking about was labeled "Residential Lobby / Amenity". It is a decently sized chunk though, so maybe they could give up a chunk for some retail. Who knows.

The developer has said no retail in this space. Not sure why.

This is on the Planning Commission Agenda for December 3rd.

Site Plan

Site plans: http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups ... 101085.pdf

The basement and levels two and three all appear to be parking. The main floor is club room, fitness room, theater room, bike parking, etc. The residential portion is only on levels 4-6. Strange that they wouldn't go higher than 6, given that the parking structure portion has to be concrete, no?

The last 2 pages contain elevations and renderings. It's still pretty brown, beige, and blah.

EDIT: You beat me to it!

It's just the brown building or the glassy grey one next to it as well?

Site plans: http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups ... 101085.pdf

The basement and levels two and three all appear to be parking. The main floor is club room, fitness room, theater room, bike parking, etc. The residential portion is only on levels 4-6. Strange that they wouldn't go higher than 6, given that the parking structure portion has to be concrete, no?

The last 2 pages contain elevations and renderings. It's still pretty brown, beige, and blah.

EDIT: You beat me to it!

And you beat me to my comment regarding the seemingly enormous amount of parking in this project. Will some of it be public parking?

Site plans: http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups ... 101085.pdf

The basement and levels two and three all appear to be parking. The main floor is club room, fitness room, theater room, bike parking, etc. The residential portion is only on levels 4-6. Strange that they wouldn't go higher than 6, given that the parking structure portion has to be concrete, no?

The last 2 pages contain elevations and renderings. It's still pretty brown, beige, and blah.

EDIT: You beat me to it!

And you beat me to my comment regarding the seemingly enormous amount of parking in this project. Will some of it be public parking?

It's not an unusual amount of parking in my opinion. They're buiding these apartments on top of the lot used for the Union Bank & Trust building. The tenants of that building are still going to need to park somewhere, so I'm sure one of the two floors of parking in 155 will be used for employees / customers of the existing building.

As much as I dislike so much parking above ground, I've looked at a lot of lots like this around the city that are seemingly undevelopable because there is no way a bank wants to get rid of their drive up.(sons of norway wells fargo, and a lot of banks which have drive ups) This is really a great solution to develop that property, and still have drive up tellers, and atms. I really wish more of that was going on. It doesn't have to be a bare lot to accommodate diver convenience, and this will hopefully be a good example for the other banks in NE... (maybe they could be incorporated into the superior plating or totinos sites, and make their lots available for new development. (I'm looking at you NE Wells Fargo and Us Bank...))

Also, major props on the green roof.

The exterior still isn't much to write home about... material dependent for overall appearance quality I guess.

Excited non the less!

Instead of all of these buildings having their own workout facilities, it would be interesting to see NE bring in an LA Fitness or something (similar to Uptown) that could be shared by renters and other residents alike.