Washington Square - 20, 100, 111 Washington Avenue S

[rhettcarlson]

It will be interesting to see what parts of the grounds will be considered historic for its designation/tax credits and thus can't be changed. The lot line goes right up to Hennepin/Washington and I'd love to see that patch better activated/landscaped.

[twincitizen]

I wonder if there are any public easements on the old/vacated Nicollet ROW that would preserve the quasi-public walking path that exists today. If there's no easement in place, it's possible they could e.g. block it off with stanchions around a restaurant patio. That could be an important thing to discover as the plans move forward. Ideally they will be able to both activate the area under the colonnade by filling it with restaurant tables while preserving pedestrian access through the space in some way, particularly since the walking route leads directly into a public park.

Oh man I just turned on the Parcel Annotation layer on the Hennepin County Property Map in this part of town. It shows the old property lines of all the narrow turn-of-the-century buildings that once lined most of the streets in this area. https://gis.hennepin.us/property/?pid=2302924320528 Turn on Parcel Annotation under Layers. Then turn on the 1940 aerial and use the slider to compare to present day.

The wholesale demolition of the Gateway district has to be a candidate for the worst non-freeway-related act of civic vandalism "urban renewal" in US history. In an alternate reality where a lot of this historic urban fabric doesn't get torn down, I bet this area would have beat North Loop to the punch in terms of becoming what North Loop is today. We might've seen a renaissance of this area beginning back in the 80s or 90s, and eventually later spilling up Washington into the further reaches of North Loop. This area would probably be the epicenter of downtown nightlife, rather than Washington & 5th/6th Ave N as it is today. I was in downtown Milwaukee this summer, and even in areas where there are full block parking lots around and relatively blank facades on modern buildings, all it takes is a single blockface full bars in of old 20' wide buildings to make the area feel super lively.

I honestly think Minneapolis should try to recreate at least one blockface of "new old gateway buildings" around here. I don't even care if it's kind of fakey looking as long as it's designed with restaurant/retail spaces no wider than 30' or so. My moonshot idea to fix this part of town and extend the vitality of North Loop is to tear down 100 Washington and replace it with a building with great frontages of narrow commercial spaces. I chose that building specifically because it occupies a full block and doesn't contain condos like many of the other gateway blocks. If we could get something great on that block, then someday the federal building (improve or replace), and someday replace the Wells Fargo building that's becoming a data center (boo!), this area would start to unsuck. What a huge failure it is that the $500 million Four Seasons / RBC building does absolutely nothing to extend the North Loop good vibes down Washington. Given that 20 Washington and 111 Washington aren't going anywhere and would be almost impossible to improve their Washington frontages, the Four Seasons project was the one shot to get it right, and they completely blew it.

[PhilmerPhil]

My vote is for an urban renewal history museum. Recreate Gateway District streetscapes à la the Streets of Old Milwaukee exhibit at their public museum: https://www.mpm.edu/plan-visit/exhibiti ... -milwaukee

[angrysuburbanite]

The wholesale demolition of the Gateway district has to be a candidate for the worst non-freeway-related act of civic vandalism "urban renewal" in US history. In an alternate reality where a lot of this historic urban fabric doesn't get torn down, I bet this area would have beat North Loop to the punch in terms of becoming what North Loop is today.

10000%! I stumbled across the same thing for a personal research project for a class last year. The gateway district is the missing link between the CBD and the residential-focused North Loop. Of course, it was pretty blighted at the time of the urban renewal but prior to that was a truly world-class urban neighborhood. We've tried many times to build a downtown park space of some sort but that wedge with the fountain that used to exist on that parcel was by far the best one. If that historic urban fabric continued even just a block or two east beyond Hennepin that area of downtown would be much different (for the better) than it is now.

All that being said, that corner of Hennepin and Washington is looking much better now than it did 15 years ago with the RBC tower and apartment buildings/grocery store space. I think that if the Washington Square developer does some activation to the exterior of the building (like outdoor seating) we'd get the closest we can at this point to the pre-urban renewal days. Still not even close to the nexus of downtown foot traffic it once was...

[Didier]

I’ve always felt the apartment building just north of 20 Washington really ruins the area. It’s so disconnected from everything and negates the effect of having the Nicollet ROW there.

[Nick]

The whole street level situation over there is a mess, but you can imagine a lot of ways to do some creative infill in the vicinity of Marquette & 2nd. Probably going to need to wait for the next boom, though. It also kinda sucks that they ended up putting kitchen prep space with the blinds drawn along a lot of the Nicollet frontage of the RBC building. For the record, I'm pretty sure I voted against putting a parking ramp entrance right at the corner of Hennepin & Washington.

[mattaudio]

The wholesale demolition of the Gateway district has to be a candidate for the worst non-freeway-related act of civic vandalism "urban renewal" in US history.

Related, does TPT's MN Video Vault still exist somewhere? mnvideovault.org/ returns a 503. If it exists somewhere, there was an old documentary about the Gateway District before urban renewal that showed the old buildings and the vagrancy in the area. I don't like how they solved it, but interesting to see the before times.

[MNdible]

I'm not a scholar of this, so I'd be curious to know how bad it really was compared to the urban renewal that happened in most other rust belt cities. My impression has always been that it wasn't particularly unique. Or maybe it was a little unique, in that Minneapolis was among the youngest of the big rust belt cities and so therefore had less historic fabric of this vintage to lose?

Anyway. Every time this comes up, people always imagine what could have been if the demolition hadn't happened, and it would be amazing if these buildings had been renovated into active new uses! But the more likely alternate history seems to be that they would have moldered and deteriorated for another 30 years, acting as an anchor on downtown, until they were eventually condemned and demolished because they hadn't been maintained for decades. It was an absolute shame to lose them, and there were a number of perfectly viable, architecturally significant buildings that were demolished for no good reason, but I tend to think the boosters were broadly correct -- something major had to be done in the Gateway.

[MNdible]

I’ve always felt the apartment building just north of 20 Washington really ruins the area. It’s so disconnected from everything and negates the effect of having the Nicollet ROW there.

Fun fact: there are actually several commercial condominium spaces on the ground floor of the River Towers buildings. There are probably a bunch of issues with accessibility and what not, and it would take some money and some vision, but there's at least a conceivable path to activating that frontage.

[John21]

The wholesale demolition of the Gateway district has to be a candidate for the worst non-freeway-related act of civic vandalism "urban renewal" in US history.

Related, does TPT's MN Video Vault still exist somewhere? mnvideovault.org/ returns a 503. If it exists somewhere, there was an old documentary about the Gateway District before urban renewal that showed the old buildings and the vagrancy in the area. I don't like how they solved it, but interesting to see the before times.

This one? https://www.pbs.org/video/return-to-sk ... rce=social

[BigIdeasGuy]

I’ve always felt the apartment building just north of 20 Washington really ruins the area. It’s so disconnected from everything and negates the effect of having the Nicollet ROW there.

This has always been my thought as well, 20 Washington is a great building and anchor to the north end of Nicollet Mall it's that beyond that are 2 not super inviting condo buildings and a bland wind swept plaza so it kinda just dead ends. Combined with the walling effect along Washington of Cancers Survivors Park, I'm not sure what the solution is but it's not just better activation or programing