urbanMSP

I've seen articles listing them from anywhere from 17 to 20 stories. So i'm not 100% sure. I assume its 17.

Yeah, I am not sure either..the renderings seem to agree with the 19, so I am wondering if they have been cut to 17. Either way, hopefully they will look good! Should be a fun construction site to watch, a lot of cranes in that area this summer.

I still count 19 when I look at the renders, but who knows. Then again, it's not like the Business Journal and Strib haven't run with inaccurate information before.

17 in the bulk of the buildings + 2 floors in the end towers + 1 mechanical floor + crown. 19 inhabited floors, 20 floors total. 301 feet.

I believe the initial proposal, for total floors, way back when, was 17 (or 18 depending on where you start counting... 5 floors of residential units, fronting the buildings, fit into the first 4 floors of the towers) and 276 feet. The final numbers are what avian posted. If you you start counting floors, beginning with the residences, you'll get 20. If you start counting floors, beginning with the tower portions, you'll get 19.

I think this is why we hear numbers 17, 18, 19, and 20, and sometimes people accidentally count the crown and say 21. However, the final number is 19/20 floors... and if you can technically call a 19 story building 20 stories, why not?

I think that's how it was, how it is, and how it works.

An illustration to help: It depends where you start counting.

Walk into the tower from residential floor 5 and you are now on tower floor 4. Lets call that tower floor 5... and we get 20 stories.

Just saw this; I believe it's a new animation with updated renderings and fly-through:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kCQPHK ... e=youtu.be

Pretty good rendering. Still dislike that smaller apartment building. Looks horribly out of place and what is that shadowy building where the Henn Co Morgue is?

Huh. Apparently all that grass is a no pedestrian zone.

Speaking seriously, wouldn't the park work better with some diagonal paths/sidewalks through the blocks like you'll see at college campuses? They're going to be worn in anyway. Of course, we could wait to see where the wear patterns develop and then build the paths.

Watch how TALL our camera can make 17 stories look.

Are those sheep grazing? And what are the small parking lots on the north side of the towers for?

The elites? Oh wait they will have under dome parking. So must be for the 99%.

And what are the small parking lots on the north side of the towers for?

Midblock plazas!

And what are the small parking lots on the north side of the towers for?

Midblock plazas!

Really? Seems like it also could be an area for pick up/drop off for the apartments. I enjoyed watching the video and how this project will better enhance linking the two sides of downtown that seemed to be so far apart for so long.

And what are the small parking lots on the north side of the towers for?

Midblock plazas!

Really?

Maybe, but it was mostly a joke reference to a small tangent on the Nicollet Mall thread.

cool fly through with some street level views.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kCQPHKt7wU

I never noticed before that the "newer" addition apartment building on the 1/3 block of the park has a step down look. The way it is broken into three it almost looks like 7, 6, 5 stories. I like the look.

Imagining the air rights the same height as the WF towers seems odd. I actually think it will take away from the dynamic point on the stadium. I hope I am wrong.

That's what I was saying in the air rights thread... This whole area is going to look like a giant stubby concrete wall if the development above the ramp is the same height as these two towers. The 6 story addition to the west looks great, but having the stadium, the two twin towers and the parking ramp proposal the same basic height won't look good- personally I think one tall wells tower would have been so much nicer for the look of this area with a much shorter air rights tower..

Not a fan of it being the same height, but at least it appears skinnier. I agree with many of you about the concrete wall look. Ugh.

Maybe the new name of the park could be "Walled-in (Walden) Park" or "Walled Gardens"

This is Minneapolis 2014. Building architecturally daring and ambitious projects are relics of the past. The best hope under the current circumstances is that a new building works well enough to "fit in" and improve the pedestrian realm.

I too miss the days when every new building in Minneapolis was architecturally daring and ambitious.

When was that again?