urbanMSP

IDS Center plans $20M in improvements according to Finance and Commerce...behind paywall.
http://finance-commerce.com/2014/02/ids ... rovements/

What I'd like is a publicly accessible restroom. Even if it's only open for the hours the Crystal Court is. If Minneapolis really wants downtown/Nicollet Mall/Mile to be a place where people go to spend time, there needs to be a public bathroom besides the Library.

Random/off topic:
https://www.google.com/maps/@44.97674,- ... yAM2rw!2e0
When did Macy's start covering their windows? Surely they kept them way back when, but what might have led to the decision to cover them? I would think more flexibility in store layout, but natural light seems like it has some inherent value.

It's been like that for years and years. There are a few open to the light, in the Oval Room and the Bridal area.

Maybe it's like the casino and shoppers stay longer and spend more if they can't easily look outside and tell what time if day it is ? Perhaps also it ruins any interior lighting effects the store wants on it's merchandise.

Random/off topic:
https://www.google.com/maps/@44.97674,- ... yAM2rw!2e0
When did Macy's start covering their windows? Surely they kept them way back when, but what might have led to the decision to cover them? I would think more flexibility in store layout, but natural light seems like it has some inherent value.

Back when the store was built in 1902 natural light was very important. Also merchandise was stored and displayed much differently. Nowdays stores almost always use perimeter areas for stockrooms. The windows look far better than they used to before the facade was restored in the early 1990's. At that time almost all of the windows were painted over.

Within the past 10 years or so, they actually have re-opened a few of their windows to the street. For example, near the changing room by the women's lingerie. Don't ask me why I know that...

http://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/one-of-a ... -hedgecock

Which begs the question: How would he have felt about forum moderation?

Another fun fact, Johnson was gay. Don't know of too many other gay Nazi sympathizers.

Another fun fact, Johnson was gay. Don't know of too many other gay Nazi sympathizers.

He was young and closeted as a Nazi sympathizer living in an extremely homophobic era. It's the classic Jungian projection of a person's shadow (of their psyche) to hide parts of yourself you don't like or are afraid of. It's similar scenario for a rabidly anti-gay politician who secretly cruises tearooms for gay sex.

This is just silly - it is much more complex than he was or wasn't a nazi. The real context for his statement about Nazi Rallies were about how the political group used the architecture to create specific environments and experiences for the audience… Albert Spear employed "monumentalism" across all of his work… they were built for drama, built to impress, built to create the belief that this buildings would last for one thousand years… another issue is that in the thirties many of the scientific, quasi-scientific, and the veiled of genetics or at that time, eugenics (which is now clearly understood as a horrific form of justification of genocide. Sadly, a lot of people outside of Germany bought into some of these beliefs early on… He later said "I have no excuse (for) such unbelievable stupidity... I don't know how you expiate guilt."
His being gay was, like for so many in the early 20th century, something very hidden, and very dangerous. But one thing that is very brave of him was that he lived with his partner for 45 years starting back in 1960. Still not an accepting time for gay relationships.
I'm just saying that it was far more complex and I am not sure that he was that different that many many of our politicians and corporate leaders…

^^^Agree, he was young, naïve, and extremely closeted in his sexuality etc. There is historical context to the era he grew up in and how that shaped his thinking. People change as they get older and frequently have reconciled some of their psychological "baggage". Your perspective is different at 54 versus even 30 years old. If I remember correctly he designed the predominantly gay MCC Cathedral of Hope in Dallas as one of his last projects before he died.

What does any of this have to do with the IDS Center?

What does any of this have to do with the IDS Center?

Johnson was the architect of the IDS.

Did he have any thoughts on youth in Asia?

What does this conversation have to do with the IDS Center. Get off the soap box and deal with the building and not the architect's youthful ideas, bad as they may have been.

What does this conversation have to do with the IDS Center. Get off the soap box and deal with the building and not the architect's youthful ideas, bad as they may have been.

I guess we need to branch off a thread titled "General Deceased Nazi Architect Discussion" if we'd like to spend a few posts discussing the building's architect being in the news. I mean, we're up to 6 posts about the architect (when you don't count posts complaining,) so this is clearly out of hand.

I think some of us were already making fun of the direction this thread had gone, but with references that may have been obscure.

Wow, this 1972 photo makes it clear how much the IDS changed the skyline. Maybe keep this photo in your back pocket the next time someone says a tall building will stick out like a middle finger. http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=734838