urbanMSP

20170328_144324 by grant.simons, on Flickr

Every time there's a discussion about funding bus service, I keep hearing that self-driving cars will be all the rage in just 5 or 10 short years.

Given that DEFINITE REALITY and how it will eliminate the need for downtown parking, this concrete parking podium with its majority non-level decks will be extremely difficult to turn into non-parking uses.

Don't worry about the podium's and parking garages. Someday they'll make for excellent local Amazon fulfillment centers from which drones will deliver items within 10 minutes of us hitting the "Buy it now," button. Presently, this one is really boring to watch go up.

Every time there's a discussion about funding bus service, I keep hearing that self-driving cars will be all the rage in just 5 or 10 short years.

Given that DEFINITE REALITY and how it will eliminate the need for downtown parking, this concrete parking podium with its majority non-level decks will be extremely difficult to turn into non-parking uses.

Maybe I'm being naive, but I don't believe the hype. Even if they had them most people will want their own anyway, still needing those parking spaces.

Where's your creativity when it comes to re-using the podium anyway? What about an indoor skate park? What about the world's longest slinky run? Downhill in-line skating races?

Maybe I'm being naive, but I don't believe the hype. Even if they had them most people will want their own anyway, still needing those parking spaces.

I assume Matt was being sarcastic. But I'm with you in believing people will want their own and think it will be a slow transition to not wanting to park next to work. Sure, you can send it to park somewhere less expensive, but then you have to summon it and wait before you can use it again.

I wonder how much money/space is saved with these sloped floors versus doing mostly flat parking levels. Also I'm not structural engineer, but it looks like you couldn't even rip out the slanted floors and replace them with flat ones at a later date, because they're sitting between the levels of support columns.

I heard from the grapevine that slanted-floor apartments will be all the rage in 10-20 years...

I heard from the grapevine that slanted-floor apartments will be all the rage in 10-20 years...

Imagine the calf toning potential!

I am not sure what the street side looks like, but it looks like the slope could just be on the interior side. If so, the street side would still be flat and could be converted to apartments.

Regarding driverless cars, I don't buy the hype either. Just think if 1 driverless car causes an accident that kills someone. There is no individual driver to blame. You have a company that makes the driverless technology and the automaker at fault in EVERY accident. Can you imagine the lawsuits?

Hey, people spent millions for condos with slanted floors in this posh San Francisco building.

I took this photo to show the gap that will be filled in with the Ritz and Gateway towers. You can barely see the crane coming up behind 4Marq.

North side of downtown Minneapolis from 450 feet 3-22-17 by Matt Bappe, on Flickr

And from the other side. They are starting to level out the floors now.

Ritz Residences construction Minneapolis 4-8-17 by Matt Bappe, on Flickr

Thanks for taking the pics -- great shots!

Untitled by Brian Lenk, on Flickr

The exterior is starting to go on this.

PRECAST!

AS PLANNED!

Still dumb

You can see the cut-outs for the balconies starting on the top floors. The building is about 25% in height.

Ritz Residences construction Minneapolis 5-26-17 by Matt Bappe, on Flickr

The north side sure is a giant blank solid precast wall. I need to dig up the plans to see why there are no connections.

Parking podiums for the loss.