urbanMSP

Looks awesome. I don't have to be rich to appreciate some good bone marrow... dang.

Hopefully the portions here won't be anorexic size like Borough.

Well there's another restaurant in my neighborhood I'll visit...never.

Though it would be fun to take a 10-month-old there.

Looks like the rest of the lower street level will be the oxided corrugated steel panels that are also used on the Griard and Lake street sides. Hopefully at this pace the street level will be finished by the end of the month. With the second level amenities level being finished soon there after.

Stick Box -1 for high quality finishing materials.

Can't wait for Cheapo to be torn down and replaced with something as great as this.

The Cheapo really does look out of place next to this

The number of materials used in this project is... interesting (putting politely). It almost as if this was the first building the architect ever designed so they decided to include everything they could think of; and gave no thought to how that would actually tie together.

The only redeeming aspect of this building are the 4 tall glass angled storefronts facing Girard.

The windows of the apartments on the Girard side should be inset more. Too flat looking and makes the upper part of the building look weak. The Lake Street side is much better and the eclectic facade works pretty well IMO. Agree the angled storefronts are the best aspect of the project.

I see a yogurt place is going into one of those store fronts.

Walked by this on Lake Street last night. The 2nd floor setback really does a nice job of continuing a solid pedestrian realm all the way to the Cheapo building. Looking forward to seeing the snow melt and having that block of Girard become a neighborhood hotbed for activity this summer.

the brackets to hold up the cool lighting thingy are going up today. love this thing. picture:

https://db.tt/wOgPKKE8

I was wondering what that was! I thought maybe signs for the storefronts? but a cool lighting feature is great!

Saw that the other day with plywood fronting it and wondered WTF. Still have not gotten any material on the store front facades yet, unless this happened very recently.

That design element looms over the sidewalk in a disconcerting way. :\

Not liking it at present. Hopefully when it is finished and lit it will do something. Right now it looks like an awful afterthought.

This hodge podge of a design is a fun idea, but it would have worked out better with just a little more sense of unity in the overall feel of the exterior with higher quality materials. To use Seanrichardryan's term they "cheap out" in areas where this shouldn't happen and it brings the whole thing down aesthetically. BKV has the same problem with their Lake and Knox and Penfield projects.

BKV has the same problem with their Lake and Knox and Penfield projects.

To compare this to Penfield is...not right. I rather like this building as do others. Penfield, AFAIK, has been universally condemned here.

They now have flashy parking ramp signs that look like something out of the '30's. I kind of like the effect.