urbanMSP

1935: http://t.co/DQ58gGgmED
2013: http://t.co/KJFAqE4WhL
The only thing that's changed is the craftsmanship.

That's pretty amazing!

adfads

ha!

1935: http://t.co/DQ58gGgmED
2013: http://t.co/KJFAqE4WhL
The only thing that's changed is the craftsmanship.

Cousin It!

Didn't know where else to throw this- stumbled across it by chance the other day. Old photo of the building now housing Sneaky Pete's downtown. Assuming they didn't strip the exterior and just covered it up with metal plating, this is what's underneath:
http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/largeri ... n=10852094

EDIT: Side note: Fun Fact: That horrible, mostly vacant 2-story building on the corner of Hennepin and 5th was actually built in the 1880's.

Wait, what?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquette ... _Plaza.jpg

Been meaning to revive this thread.

Yeah, they added a back on Marquette and filled the gap. The original fenestration looked much better with the pronounced vertical fins in the center. Also, the plaza was a dreary dead zone.

I wasn't around back then, but that plaza was quite a legendary centralized skateboarder meetup from stories I've heard. Here's some quick footage of it from the late 90s if anyone's interested: http://youtu.be/DeYpA027aAU?t=7m42s

(Note: Scroll through that video fore more 90s downtown streetscapes!)

Yeah, they wrecked it when they added the back. I mean, it was either that or tear it down, since the super long, narrow floorplates apparently made it nearly unleaseable once the Fed moved out, but still.

Wasn't it built basically like a suspension bridge, and there were all kinds of structural problems with that? And filling in the gap changed the engineering of the building?

Fake edit: It is built like a suspension bridge, and it did have problems, but not structural. Not really clear why exactly they filled in the bottom.

That's crazy.

JNCOs were insane.

Yes, built like a suspension bridge.

At the time they proposed the addition, I remember somebody in the architectural press had a pithy comment to the effect that it was like grafting a camel onto the back of a gazelle.

This is the only building on Earth (not including bridges) to use this kind of support system. It's a shame they butchered it so badly. It looked like a strange, minimalist sculpture before the renovation.

One of the biggest issues what that there were problems with the window glass and leaking due to the original setback of the glass between the two different sections of glass. The underground portion of the building leased up well before the upper levels of the building. I'm glad they were able to save the building, even if it has a funky addition on the Marquette side of the building.