urbanMSP

Donaldson/Carson Pierre Scott was the anchor on the mall. The fire that burned down the old Northwest Bank started in the old Donalsons building. Donaldsons have just moved into City Center before that fire started. Check out Wiki for Northwest fire. The fire also gave us what is now Gaviidee 1 on the site of the old store.
I think Mervyn's might have used the empty Donalson's space until Dayton Corp pulled the plug on that division. The mall survived for awhile until retail went into a tailspin in the late 2000's when Ralph Lauren, Crate and Barrel, and the lose of the Conservatory wiped out what had been destination stores that brought people into shop. Mind you it was not enough shoppers for the market. But when they had those stores, until one of the recessions wiped out demand, the mall looked pretty good.

I'll agree with you that the Oxford Co. was a lousy landlord and was clueless when they tried to deal with the lose of Carson and the reworking of City Center. They basically single handedly killed the retail in City Center.

Donaldson/Carson Pierre Scott was the anchor on the mall. The fire that burned down the old Northwest Bank started in the old Donalsons building. Donaldsons have just moved into City Center before that fire started. Check out Wiki for Northwest fire. The fire also gave us what is now Gaviidee 1 on the site of the old store.

I am aware of all of that, yes...but Wards was the last department store in the space on that corner of the mall, is what I meant...it was the entire corner where Office depot was most recently, on both floors.

I guess these last posts could be moved to City Center thread:)

PS...yes, anyone who doesn't know about the Northwestern Bank/Donaldson's Thanksgiving fire (I wouldn't guess there are many here) should look it up! I have always found that to be a very interesting event...and oddly hard to find pics of!

The tower could use some depth. Maybe just a subtle stain or even paint?


Lotta blue in that skyline. Maybe fake some of those reflective properties...


Or how about a giant wraparound mural of Charles Lindbergh??


OK that's enough.

You're onto something with the paint/stain idea. The Wells Fargo building in Bloomington used to look like this:
https://www.google.com/maps/@44.858445, ... 901T000000

I remember them painting it a few years back to look like this:
https://www.google.com/maps/@44.858444, ... 901T000000

Made a huge difference.

Oh wow, yeah exactly what I was thinking. What an improvement. Seems like it would be cost-effective as well.

Ooooohhh! I could get behind any of those.

I still like it as is.

Duplicate! Oops.

Though they did do a good job with re-cladding that tower in Indianapolis that had the tornado damage...something like that could be cool.

Drop a tornado on 33 6th, and we can do something like 100 Van Ness in SF.

That is a nice re-do!

Very cool.

In the dodging-the-bullet department, re City Center:
https://twitter.com/RickNelsonStrib/sta ... 8722246656

Ha! That's sort of awesome, though, in a 1970s sci-fi movie way!

In the dodging-the-bullet department, re City Center:
https://twitter.com/RickNelsonStrib/sta ... 8722246656

Credit to Nick for the idea:

I don't know that the model looks any worse than what we have.

I forgot that wonderful gem, that was back when we were moving everyone above the city streets for their own safety I guess. Much like St. Paul with their indoor park and life on the skyway level.

Maybe the new owner might be receptive to these new ideas? I can't imagine a company buying properties around the country sets out to own the ugliest buildings they can find.

Sports Authority exterior and a little interior renders....

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups ... 140243.pdf

Sports Authority exterior and a little interior renders....

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups ... 140243.pdf

I cannot wait!!! So much better!

We need to change that sign variance. Downtowns are big and should have some bigger signs in them. Instead, you need a variance almost every time in downtown.