Xcel Energy HQ - 401 Nicollet

[Silophant]

Interestingly enough, the intranet site about 401 appears to have been updated today, with a new rendering of the skyway. It shows it connecting to the second floor of 414, above the mezzanine level. However, on the 401 side, it seems to connect smack between floors 2 and 3, with a little slice of the second floor window visible beneath the skyway... So take that with a grain of salt.

[Nick]

P2080005 by streetsmn, on Flickr

[grant1simons2]

From the look of the webcam it looks like some of the steel is going up!

[bapster2006]

Yea, lots of work being done today.

Xcel Energy HQ - 4Marq construction 2-26-15 by bapster2006, on Flickr

[seanrichardryan]

Look Ma! No parking podium!

[IllogicalJake]

Look Ma! No parking podium!

The 7(?) floors of parking will be much more obvious when its windowless facade goes up, I think.

[Silophant]

I believe he's referring to the Xcel Energy building, not 4Marq.

[Nick]

Does anyone else get physically tired thinking about the idea of driving up and down seven stories of parking ramp every day?

[FISHMANPET]

Ever since Aaron talked about driving up the Mosaic ramp, yes.

But I get tired thinking about backing my car out of my garage onto the street, so who knows.

Sent from my phone

[xandrex]

Does anyone else get physically tired thinking about the idea of driving up and down seven stories of parking ramp every day?

The other day I drove downtown and parked in the Leamington Ramp during normal work hours. It felt mentally taxing to have to keep going up and up and up. Then at the end of the day doing the opposite and waiting in a huge queue to leave.

It definitely makes me appreciate living so close to downtown that the bus is usually the best option.

[IllogicalJake]

I believe he's referring to the Xcel Energy building, not 4Marq.

Yeah, thought I was in the 4Marq thread with that photo. Oops. I never connected a building Xcel's size with needing a ramp podium.

[Nathan]

I believe he's referring to the Xcel Energy building, not 4Marq.

Yeah, thought I was in the 4Marq thread with that photo. Oops. I never connected a building Xcel's size with needing a ramp podium.

Yeah but if every building had a little bit of parking, podium or otherwise, I feel like there would be a lot less need for single use parking structures.

[mattaudio]

I think I'd rather see the occasional larger volume single use parking structure than every building having a podium etc. Of course, I'd hope for activated first floors, and screening. But, other than that, the bigger the better. Why?

1. Concentrated parking means fewer curb cuts, and less space devoted to access/egress.

2. Concentrated parking helps to decouple car storage as a private good from other private goods such as housing, buying things, or consuming services.

3. Less 'every building having a little bit of parking' means easier conversion to other uses as markets change and demand for car storage decreases. I realize it's not necessarily the case, but what if we have demand for just a tiny fraction of the parking we currently demand today? How difficult is it going to be to rehab all these podium parking decks -- especially the ones at grade -- into square footage for other uses?

[Silophant]

-1. As much as we don't like it, people are going to be driving to downtown for a long time yet. As long as they have decent urban frontage (Mar-Ten, 11th and Harmon), I really don't mind parking ramps. It's the Gateway and 4th and Nicollets of the city I can't stand.

[mnmike]

People are going to be driving downtown forever. Have you seen the amount of parking ramps/parking podiums/underground parking in Chicago? If a city 5 times bigger than us with a decent public transit system has a parking ramp on every other block....I probably wouldn't expect to see these disappear from here anytime soon.

That is, of course, not talking in terms of some kind of a mass reduction in car use across the board in the future...but if people are looking for the city to reach some kind of magic density where we won't have parking garages all over or see them converted to other uses, I don't think that is going to happen. Just look to our bigger, denser American midwest neighbor...still building parking all over.

PS, I saw this new building in Chicago last year...please don't allow any podiums like this here!!! Cool building, but ugh, that base. It's right by the Sears tower (not Willis ). The parking "podium" is not a fad I am a fan of





PPS, I know this has gotten off topic. Parking!

[Gman12]

Supertall parking ramp and tear down the rest.

[David Greene]

Supertall parking ramp and tear down the rest.

I think I just died of physical exhaustion.

[min-chi-cbus]

THAT is a cool building (above the podium)! I love that about Chicago -- so much creativity in the designs of some buildings. I don't ENVY Chicago per se but certainly respect it as a big brother.

[TroyGBiv]

Chicago has great architecture - bold brash and usually designed to make a statement.

[trigonalmayhem]

Why can't we just have a bunch of huge parking ramps that are fed directly from the highways like the ABC ramps, but also for 94/35W? Then tear down/ban parking structures and surface lots inside the highway ring and connect them all to the skyways (if you must--because let's face it, most people who drive downtown won't walk outside in the winter). Then most of the downtown streets could get calmed since they'd no longer be primarily highway feeders.