Thrivent HQ & Moment apartments - 500 7th St & 650 Portland Ave

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Nathan
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Re: Thrivent Headquarters Block - 6th St and Portland Ave

Postby Nathan » March 7th, 2018, 8:57 am

I Don't see any of the modernist subtleties that would give it the finesse or sleek feeling of the old building.

Anecdotally I told my partner they were redeveloping and showed them that picture, they said "is that the parking garage"

...

SurlyLHT
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Re: Thrivent Headquarters Block - 6th St and Portland Ave

Postby SurlyLHT » March 7th, 2018, 9:19 am

The StarTribune has more information and the building does look better in their clearer pictures and does remind me of the KA HQ.
http://www.startribune.com/thrivent-rev ... 476096793/

I like that the first floor is targeted for the general public,

"On the corner of Portland Avenue and S. 6th Street there would be a public plaza or park that would offer outdoor seating and public art and be connected to a coffee shop and grab-and-go cafe further south on the site. Also on the first floor would be a chapel and meditation room, which already has a presence in Thrivent’s current offices. A company art gallery as well as a credit union would be located on the skyway level and be more accessible to the public than they are currently."

Also here are some clues of what blocks might be open with the county moving into their old building,

"Last fall, the Hennepin County Board voted to buy Thrivent’s current 17-story headquarters for $55 million. The building at 625 4th Av. S. is planned to be mostly used by employees of the Family Justice Center and Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC)."

rhettcarlson
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Re: Thrivent Headquarters Block - 6th St and Portland Ave

Postby rhettcarlson » March 7th, 2018, 9:22 am

I hoping the two buildings by Sherman are tall enough (7+ stories) that they are not stick construction... The KA block would be a great benchmark for density/scale.

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Re: Thrivent Headquarters Block - 6th St and Portland Ave

Postby Tyler » March 7th, 2018, 9:25 am

Looks fine in an Edina dental office sort of a way. Except for that glass dongle. Seriously, WTF?
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Re: Thrivent Headquarters Block - 6th St and Portland Ave

Postby Silophant » March 7th, 2018, 9:27 am

What, the beacon? They're very proud of the beacon.
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Tyler
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Re: Thrivent Headquarters Block - 6th St and Portland Ave

Postby Tyler » March 7th, 2018, 9:30 am

Like a glass tower of hope?
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Nathan
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Re: Thrivent Headquarters Block - 6th St and Portland Ave

Postby Nathan » March 7th, 2018, 9:50 am

What I also don't get is like how this wouldn't just fit right on top of the parking garage that's planned on their current block. At least 2 plain developments in a multi use building would have been a good efficient use of land.

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Nathan
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Re: Thrivent Headquarters Block - 6th St and Portland Ave

Postby Nathan » March 7th, 2018, 9:54 am

pipe dream: the hotel on this block is best western, opening up the best western Normandy block. 🤞

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VacantLuxuries
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Re: Thrivent Headquarters Block - 6th St and Portland Ave

Postby VacantLuxuries » March 7th, 2018, 9:59 am

It's because they hired a local architecture firm used to working on suburban looking projects. This and Eleven being proposed side by side really highlights how terrible the architects our local devs choose are.

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jtoemke
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Re: Thrivent Headquarters Block - 6th St and Portland Ave

Postby jtoemke » March 7th, 2018, 10:02 am

This compared to the other versions I got to sneaky see over Christmas is almost like offensively bad.

nordeast homer
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Re: Thrivent Headquarters Block - 6th St and Portland Ave

Postby nordeast homer » March 7th, 2018, 10:29 am

Hard to believe someone got paid to put this together. A complete lack of vision (and probably eyesight).

SurlyLHT
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Re: Thrivent Headquarters Block - 6th St and Portland Ave

Postby SurlyLHT » March 7th, 2018, 10:44 am

For those who were at the DMNA meeting, what was the reaction there? Is this going to get through all the processes without someone pushing for more density?

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Re: Thrivent Headquarters Block - 6th St and Portland Ave

Postby Silophant » March 7th, 2018, 11:06 am

Sure. The DMNA was impressed with the attention to the street level. (As was I! It's great!) and, even if they or the CPC wishes they'd go taller, an eight-story building is well within official guidance for this area. If that's what they want to build, nothing but a hastily passed ten-story minimum height ordinance can really stop them.

Note that this is all for the Thrivent building. As for the other half of the block, that wasn't even an official presentation. A Sherman rep was there for something else and showed us that one image to assure the DMNA that there are actually plans in motion to develop the rest of the lot, it's not just a 'sure, something will happen eventually' thing.
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Re: New Thrivent Headquarters Building - 6th St and Portland Ave

Postby Oreos&Milk » March 7th, 2018, 11:52 am

Picture time!

Image
Facing west on 6th St.

:shock: Oh dear God... Is that a "lift skyway bridge!" in it's up position? :lol: :lol:

mattaudio
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Re: Thrivent Headquarters Block - 6th St and Portland Ave

Postby mattaudio » March 7th, 2018, 12:06 pm

Is it attempting to play homage to their previous International Style HQ? http://lileks.com/mpls/lutheran/index.html

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Re: Thrivent Headquarters Block - 6th St and Portland Ave

Postby twincitizen » March 7th, 2018, 6:09 pm

I hoping the two buildings by Sherman are tall enough (7+ stories) that they are not stick construction... The KA block would be a great benchmark for density/scale.
From the Strib article: "Minneapolis developer Sherman Associates is working on plans to redevelop the southern half of the parking lot to be a 150-unit, 12-story apartment building on the southwest side and a 120-room, nine-story hotel on the other side along Portland Avenue. Sandwiched in between would be a two-story building with a day care on the ground level and a fitness center on the top."

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Re: Thrivent Headquarters Block - 6th St and Portland Ave

Postby rhettcarlson » March 7th, 2018, 7:53 pm

I hoping the two buildings by Sherman are tall enough (7+ stories) that they are not stick construction... The KA block would be a great benchmark for density/scale.
From the Strib article: "Minneapolis developer Sherman Associates is working on plans to redevelop the southern half of the parking lot to be a 150-unit, 12-story apartment building on the southwest side and a 120-room, nine-story hotel on the other side along Portland Avenue. Sandwiched in between would be a two-story building with a day care on the ground level and a fitness center on the top."
Must've missed that. Great!

Silophant
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Re: Thrivent Headquarters Block - 6th St and Portland Ave

Postby Silophant » March 7th, 2018, 8:57 pm

I wouldn't put too much stock in those floor counts just yet. Those are definitely the numbers of floors shown in the picture I posted upthread, but that picture also has both buildings being shorter than the eight-story Thrivent building, so...
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Re: Thrivent Headquarters Block - 6th St and Portland Ave

Postby min-chi-cbus » March 7th, 2018, 10:46 pm

^The Thrivant building is office space with 15-20 foot floors, whereas the apartments and hotel floors are more like 10-12 feet, so that'd make sense to me that the floor count was higher but the building was actually shorter.

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Re: Thrivent Headquarters Block - 6th St and Portland Ave

Postby BigIdeasGuy » March 8th, 2018, 11:03 am

I hope the city pushes Sherman to flip the hotel and residential projects so the housing is along Portland and the hotel is along 5th. There has clearly been an effort over the last decade+ to line Portland with residential projects on each side from Grant Park and Skyscape all the way down to Mill Ruins Park. While a hotel wouldn't be terrible addition at the corner of Portland and 7th and ruin the progress I feel like continuing the housing trend along Portland has value.


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