Northrop Auditorium Renovation

[woofner]

Yes, because no one in the history of the human species has ever been able to mitigate mold or moisture problems in buildings. Please explain how the 30' proximity caused moisture and mold. Take into account that it was 30' at the closest point, and around 50' at the furthest. Also take into account the thousands of other buildings in the world that are 30' or less from their closest neighbor.

[FISHMANPET]

I'm sure anything can be done for a price. It crowded Northrop and wasn't needed and would have been prohibitively expensive to refurbish. We can't save every old building, nor do I think we should even try.

[woofner]

You have been east of the Midwest, right? How is 30-50' away crowding?

How do you decide which old buildings should be saved? Should the fact that 1000s of students had an educational experience at Wesbrook matter? How about that it's the work of a notable local architect? How about its presence on the National Register of Historic Places? Which campus buildings would you keep around, should they get too expensive (I'm assuming you'd demolish more than you'd keep)?

It's the responsibility of a public institution to make an effort to preserve our architectural heritage, even at great expense. If our public agencies don't lead, why should private organizations follow? And I think we've seen the detrimental effects of that. Come to think of it, weren't you one of those in the House of Hanson debate who said they favored historic preservation, but those structures weren't important?

[FISHMANPET]

I don't really want to get into this that much, but the U felt the building was crowded, not me. They thought that a prominent building like Northrop needed some empty space around it to help show off its magnificence.

And for the record, I'm of the opinion that pretty much nothing in Dinkytown is "historical" so they can tear it all down for all I care.

I'd never been into Wesbrook, but it looked like a cool building from the outside. And in a vacuum with no other factors if you asked me trash it or save it, I'd say save it. But there were all sorts of other factors. And for what it's worth, it wasn't on the National Register of Historic Places, it was part of the University of Minnesota Old Campus Historic District, which is listed. And as best I can tell, there's nothing historic about it, other than it's architectural style. I don't personally think that we need to preserve every single old building because it has some minor variation of architecture from the 10 other old buildings surrounding it. We need a better reason than that.

[Tom H.]

What exactly does it mean for buildings to be too crowded? Like, they can't stretch their arms out?

By the way - still no carillon to tell us how late we are to class. I miss those booming hourly peals.

[FISHMANPET]

Quote from University senior architect Jim Litsheim:

“Because of Northrop’s stature … it needs some breathing space around the building,” Litsheim said. “[Wesbrook] is just tucked in too close.”

And as to why it being so close was a problem:

Water runoff from Northrop Auditorium, built in 1928, has eroded Wesbrook’s foundation and led to a significant mold problem.

http://www.mndaily.com/2011/03/07/unive ... brook-hall

And apparently Cass Gilbert wanted to tear it down in 1910 as well.

[lordmoke]

^To be fair, if water runoff from Northrop was damaging Wesbrook, which was constructed first, that signifies shitty design of Northrop, not Wesbrook.

This is entirely about presenting a "marketable" image. The school wanted a showpiece and was willing to throw away a historic building for it. Just add Wesbrook to Norris and The Music Ed. Building as casualties of the last five years. What replaces them? Grass. If a building is a contributing property to a NRHP Historic District, it's on the NRHP. Public institutions should probably be legally forbidden from destroying listed properties. I'm not sure why they're not.

[woofner]

Also, don't you think there is room in an $80m budget for fixing any runoff problem? Don't you think that if the foundation was beyond repair, they would have said something about that? As for breathing room, I don't know how that guy gets off calling himself an architect. I mean, fine if you think that you need 100' between buildings, obviously that's a popular attitude in this country (to enormously detrimental effect to the central cities). But the part that Wesbrook was close to was a service area - wouldn't anyone with half a brain for aesthetics want to screen that? And you must really love wide open spaces if you're willing to tear down historic buildings for it.

[seanrichardryan]

If grading issues were grounds for demolition my house should be condemned.

[RailBaronYarr]

I know FISHMANPET isn't specifically supporting the demolition, just explaining the rationale, but my quick take is that I agree demolishing it was pretty foolhardy. The U's master plan has placed a lot of importance on adding green spaces and opening up vistas to the river and downtown, and while this is nice for a campus that somewhat lacks this open feel, I disagree on the implementation here (and, somewhat question the need as I never felt the U was lacking on grassy space, especially given the % of the school year with snow). I'm usually as big an advocate for allowing private development unless the building itself represents an extremely specific architectural/historic significance, but a land grant university hurting for historic buildings and under no pressure of increasing property taxes, etc had no real reason to take down this building. It shielded the ugly backside of Northrop, fronted the street very well, helped create a nice plaza surrounded by multiple historic buildings between itself and Nicholson, and gave variety to the building stock in the Knoll. Too late to save it, obviously, but a bummer and poor decision. I wasn't too concerned about Norris being lost as it was ticked back and not very visible or significant. Oh well.

[lordmoke]

Includes slideshow of recent interior photos:
http://www.startribune.com/entertainmen ... 41131.html

[seanrichardryan]

Well it's done. It's not Northrop, but it looks nice, if not a little too neutral.

http://www.startribune.com/entertainmen ... 92471.html

Where's my chandelier damnit.

[lordmoke]

Hey, at least the proscenium arch is back.

[mulad]

Three balcony levels now instead of a single giant upper level.

[MNdible]

Yeah, at least from the photos, I'm definitely feeling a bit disappointed in this.

[seanrichardryan]

You've got eighty-eight million reasons to be disappointed :/

[uptowncarag]

Gorgious !!!!!!

[Wedgeguy]

I prefer the new auditorium to the old. This will be one classy place for enjoy some great entertainment.

[go4guy]

Had a bunch of guys over for the hockey game last night. All of us went to the U and had been in the old Northrup. All were very impressed with the pics I showed them.

[mulad]

Walking tour video: http://www.startribune.com/video/253951 ... video&pn=1