This is a funny comment.66th and York (NW corner)
http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/b ... -york.html
Edit: Oh my gosh somebody please dismantle the ESG monopoly before I graduate.
Thank you for your contribution to these forums (fora?) with photos and comments. You are WAY more engaged with urbanism in this town than I was in school and that should be commended.
With that said, multi-family housing is a difficult thing to assess architecturally - what are the architect's decisions? what represents the developer "VE" process? what compromises were made for the city/neighborhood/interest groups?
You really have to understand the economics of multi-family housing to understand why these buildings look the way that they do. Architects are trying to hit a "target" in the market that the developer has predetermined so there is no point in deviating from these criteria - you will be fired and they will just move on to someone who can execute the design that meets their pro forma (which is based on market conditions).
I'm not saying it is *impossible* to achieve something great in multi-family housing in the US but it really does require a developer who wants to do something special, a city entitlement process that is healthy and a great architect.