urbanMSP

Although, shame on someone for that entire packet being sideways, except for the cover page.

In that last picture, across the street, that's Stanton's condo project right?

Page 22 (or PDF page 26 I guess) for the courtyard. WOW. I love this project.

Sure beats a surface parking lot, amiright? (Sorry, can't resist being a smart ass)

Looks great to me and is really exciting for this part of town.

This is really cool.

Page 22 (or PDF page 26 I guess) for the courtyard. WOW. I love this project.

Love the courtyard. Love the notion of the interior drop off/flexible space.

Seriously, this is really really great. Mix of uses, all underground parking, great street presence, and quirky interesting design for each use that really suits the use. I'm very impressed, K/A. Very impressed.

The 'barn' actually looks like a church. Is that a cross?

L'etoile du Nord, I think.

But I do see the church similarity. With the attached hotel and brewery, I'd expect that this will be an enormously popular location for weddings, so maybe that's what they were going for.

I really like the barn, just for how unique and out of place it will look. Also dig the walkout townhomes along portland, that's one of the defining features about elliot park IMO.

I really like the barn, just for how unique and out of place it will look. Also dig the walkout townhomes along portland, that's one of the defining features about elliot park IMO.

The walkouts are very fitting. The brownstones apartment to the south, many have walk up steps, to the north you have the Sexton I that has street level walkouts, The Portland will give us a splash of street retail on the corner. Not sure how private it would be living that close to the street, but I like that they set the doors back a few feet. That also helped to create some texture to the building so it would not be a long flat wall. A good job with that! K/A came back with a winner.

For a company that usually creates suburban masterpiece's of the "slightly better than bland" variety, with a few very notable exceptions, I am thoroughly impressed. Mark this one down as another exception, and color me excited for how this progresses. A win for the Portland corridor and Downtown East.

For a company that usually creates suburban masterpiece's of the "slightly better than bland" variety, with a few very notable exceptions, I am thoroughly impressed. Mark this one down as another exception, and color me excited for how this progresses. A win for the Portland corridor and Downtown East.

In another forum, Grant called for the "breakup of the ESG monopoly" but this is beloved???

Since my new policy is to sprinkle this around every forum...The developer is HUGELY important to a good project. It's never ALL on the architect, and it's never ALL on the developer but architects don't decide on the program or pro forma which are huge drivers of these types of projects.

For what it's worth, I don't think this is a particularly beautiful project, though the architects did an OK job of disguising 3 large rectangles and a barn into a nice looking modern and VERY urban full block project, they still aren't beautiful or innovative in any way. It's great infill, but I anticipate the day we get some really great architecture in this city again.

For what it's worth, I don't think this is a particularly beautiful project, though the architects did an OK job of disguising 3 large rectangles and a barn into a nice looking modern and VERY urban full block project, they still aren't beautiful or innovative in any way. It's great infill, but I anticipate the day we get some really great architecture in this city again.

Until national developers come in and do their magic like what happened in the late 80's, I'm afraid that will not happen with the current group of local developers.

This is quite impressive. It's not going to win and design awards, but I have a feeling that this is going to have a massive impact on the neighborhood and spur even more development on the surrounding blocks. As I stated before, I wish there was a retail space on the corner of Portland and 8th. All their images show people walking on Portland. Not sure where they are walking from/to since there's nothing no destination on Portland to walk from/to.

I think it was wise to update the renderings to reflect "Finnegan House Hotel" instead of the generic "BREWTEL" which I thought could be pronounced "brutal" by detractors.

Maybe not surprising given what's on the adjacent blocks currently, but I thought it was interesting that there's no indication that any thought was given to how a future skyway might connect into this project.

The only way this block will ever get a skyway connection is if the Best Western block gets redeveloped. Being connected to the skyway is essential in the core business district, but not really a necessity for residential developments like this. Skyscape and Grand Park are not connected to the system and I don't hear complaints from a few of my friends that live on both buildings.

This is quite impressive. It's not going to win and design awards, but I have a feeling that this is going to have a massive impact on the neighborhood and spur even more development on the surrounding blocks. As I stated before, I wish there was a retail space on the corner of Portland and 8th. All their images show people walking on Portland. Not sure where they are walking from/to since there's nothing no destination on Portland to walk from/to.

Is there a reason to argue the walk up townhomes proposed at Portland and 8th be replaced with retail? Retail is already planned for Portland and 8th which seems like a fair start. (http://portlandtowerminneapolis.com/gallery/)

These projects are helping realize Portland Ave as a pedestrian friendly residential corridor (http://www.downtownmpls.com/news_articl ... id=1285815), building on the fact it already connects a dense area of today's residents (walk-from-destination being home) that walk to/across the river, stone arch being right there, to the Mill district, etc, or just dog-walking or to the light rail/bus. Soon to walk to the Commons, Armory, etc. Surprisingly, this segment of Portland even made this map as one of the most jogged downtown! (http://www.buzzfeed.com/aaronc13/21-map ... mxpgoyWrv1)

There is a retail node around 10th and Portland with the CVS and the other small retail space that are near by. I could see doing retail instead of walkups IF the city made it mandatory to build retail at street level on the empty spaces that face Portland as part of their redevelopment projects between 9th and 6th. So we're talking the WF half block and the 2 half block just to the north of it. You would then have close to a 4 block node of retail to create a critical mass. The biggest thing is having enough shopping or commercial space to get people to be drawn to the area for their shopping! The population will increase in this area over time. Now would be the best time to make sure that retail/commercial is a part of that building. They may even get some of the drivers who drive on Portland/Park to stop on their way to and from work.

While I'm comfortable with the walk ups, I'd much prefer a small retail spine along that part of Portland. They could also put more ground floor commercial along the west side of Park ave also. The new Medical Clinic would be right across the street or near where many people might park and walk to the clinic. Excellent place to have retail. Then you have a concentration of retail to build off of.