urbanMSP

Regarding the lack of balconies. Just remember that the Soo Line Building will be luxury apartments, and they will not have balconies. Not everyone needs balconies.

I realize people critique design, but people would rather have nothing than a design that is less than their favorite? Greenery instead? When we are talking about the last and only surface parking lot to go away within a half mile of Nicollet/7th, maybe we can be a little more concerned with the look. Heck, I'll take more Multifoods Towers if it means less surface lots.

Still liking the look of this one! For balconies, it would be cool if they were inset inside that white grid.

...their monotonous seas of trash collecting balconies)?

Ha!

Looks good from here. It's difficult to tell, but it appears that the glazing and cladding are much higher quality than Nic on 5th, more of a "condo-level" finish, like the Magellan project. I'm curious as to the cladding on the ramp, but I'm sure I can forgive that regardless of what it is if the rest of the building lives up to the render.

I like it, but it doesn't really look scaled correctly, being that the shorter 5th street tower across the street is also 26 floors.

Its podium is a little taller than typical podiums... at least that of 1368 and Nic on 5. This podium is 7 floors... over 70 feet. The podium of the other two is 5 floors... and around 50 feet. I think that's why this looks a little stocky. The concept looks fine... but the proportions look to be off just a bit. Whatever... this is the "concept."

If I'm not mistaking, the shorter 5th st. tower is 23 floors at 354 ft. I'm assuming this new apartment tower at 30 stories will be 300 ft. at least.

Don't want to get into a whole thing, but I'm sort of shocked that the consensus here is that this project looks good. It's not terrible and I'm on board with the infill on a challenging site, but some of the group opinions about aesthetics are puzzling. It's a box. The blood, sweat and tears shed on here over the Nic on 5th redesign could fill an Olympic swimming pool, and this project is gorgeous and amazing and worthy of love?

This is exciting! More so than the block-e crap at Nic on Fifth. Is it possible that if this is successful that Mortensen could change the way developers approach apartments now (finally put to rest the 4+1, 5+1 stick construction with their monotonous seas of trash collecting balconies)?

I had a meeting with an OPUS Senior VP last summer, and he laid it out pretty clearly for me:

It's not that developers don't want to build taller, bolder buildings (they do, and they fetch more money once sold), but they can only build what they have money for. And in this time, due to the severity of the housing crash, investors are just not laying the money on the table like they used to.

People should be jumping for joy they we will have another 30 story apartment being developed, not because it has an impact on the skyline, but because it shows that financial confidence is coming back to Minneapolis, which will in turn churn out the tall buildings the rest of you drooool over

thank you for saying. i love really tall buildings as much as the next building geek but skyscrapers aren't built with arby's coupons.
and we have to take into the account the size of the market here. what can this market support.

as for this design the initial rendering looks decent imo but again it's just one rendering. it's exciting to see so many projects in the pipeline downtown and north loop.

Don't want to get into a whole thing, but I'm sort of shocked that the consensus here is that this project looks good. It's not terrible and I'm on board with the infill on a challenging site, but some of the group opinions about aesthetics are puzzling. It's a box. The blood, sweat and tears shed on here over the Nic on 5th redesign could fill an Olympic swimming pool, and this project is gorgeous and amazing and worthy of love?

I like the modern aesthetic. The white cubes are such a contrast for Minneapolis - I like the variety. It's our own version of 432 Park Avenue in New York, albeit 1,000 feet shorter.

I agree with you. But I'm not going to drool until something gets build taller that the 792 foot 40 yr old IDS.

Well fewer surface parking lots in the core should mean the economics of taller buildings improve down the line. Although I think it's ego rather than economics that results in a building over 700 feet.

(the IDS isn't that tall)

Don't want to get into a whole thing, but I'm sort of shocked that the consensus here is that this project looks good. It's not terrible and I'm on board with the infill on a challenging site, but some of the group opinions about aesthetics are puzzling. It's a box. The blood, sweat and tears shed on here over the Nic on 5th redesign could fill an Olympic swimming pool, and this project is gorgeous and amazing and worthy of love?

A lot depends on whether the light colored skeleton or cage ( or whatever you want to call it) of the building has a strong enough screen like effect so the tower's facade appears multilayered with depth. If that happens it should look pretty interesting. If not it will probably be a big boring box.

Don't want to get into a whole thing, but I'm sort of shocked that the consensus here is that this project looks good. It's not terrible and I'm on board with the infill on a challenging site, but some of the group opinions about aesthetics are puzzling. It's a box. The blood, sweat and tears shed on here over the Nic on 5th redesign could fill an Olympic swimming pool, and this project is gorgeous and amazing and worthy of love?

I don't think anyone is saying the building has an exciting massing or crown or whatever, but it certainly appears to be a well-executed design that isn't trying to do more than it can afford to. Minneapolis has a long history of solid, well-built (if not super exciting) buildings, mostly office, that fit this mold. Nic on 5th looks like it's trying to cut cost in the facade and have a half-assed crown on a shorter building that doesn't really need one. Perhaps the idea is that they have to make it look flashy and dressed up because they know the quality won't be there, whereas with this project they know it will have long-term appeal. I also just personally don't like sidewalks tucked under pilotis.

Aaaaand of course it should be remembered that Nic on 5th got most of its criticism from people who were butthurt about the loss of a few floors, which suddenly made the project total crap.

Google Earth model of 4marq...

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/ ... 45&ct=mdsa

Click "download model." Download the KMZ file. Opens with Google Earth.

No official height has been released... but 'the talk' is 300-350 feet. I have this @ 317 feet. And... of course, this is based off of one image. I have no idea what the side facing Target Field will look like... or the SW facing side. I've just mirrored the two unseen faces with the visible faces. The side facing Target Field will overshadow a 160' tall Xcel Energy HQ. So... perhaps balconies on the upper floors? On that side... at least? Maybe?

And... if you want to see how the block is going to fill out, I also have a coloreded and basic white version of Nic on 5th in my library (on the right side of the page in the link). The colored model of Nic on 5th is far more detailed than the non-colored model and takes 2-5 minutes to load.

Or just look at this pic. 4marq is on the left. Nic on 5th is on the right. A new Xcel HQ would be on the same block, in front.

In case anyone hasn't figured this out here's a link to the unsquished image:

http://media.bizj.us/view/img/221841/4m ... dering.jpg

To me, it looks like a residential Multifoods, boring boring boring. But I'm not that worried as this won't exactly be a showpiece. However, I hope they tweak it so that the first floor becomes more prominent - right now it's overwhelmed by the parking ramp screen.

Don't want to get into a whole thing, but I'm sort of shocked that the consensus here is that this project looks good. It's not terrible and I'm on board with the infill on a challenging site, but some of the group opinions about aesthetics are puzzling. It's a box. The blood, sweat and tears shed on here over the Nic on 5th redesign could fill an Olympic swimming pool, and this project is gorgeous and amazing and worthy of love?

My love for this project is not based purely on aesthetics. But this design for sure surpassed my expectations. When I hear "30 story apartment building" for Minneapolis I think of a Skyscape/Nic on 5th type building. To me, this an elevated design from that standard. Just like you don't get the excitement I don't get the "meh" attitude on this one. What exactly were you expecting? And who knew John was such a large producer of bodily fluids?

I like it.

One of the things we lack downtown is the canyon feeling; this will help with that. Continuous buildings marks a large and vibrant for business downtown. Pack it in; this is REAL infil.