Walker Library

[min-chi-cbus]

Any pics? When I was in town over Labor Day weekend I didn't see any substantial changes to the library, but I was in Uptown only very briefly....just long enough to see what's new as I was driving.

[Wedgeguy]

Any pics? When I was in town over Labor Day weekend I didn't see any substantial changes to the library, but I was in Uptown only very briefly....just long enough to see what's new as I was driving.

IF the windows are going in then, they in a weeks time got the window curtain wall up as the last time I was down Lagoon there was little there but the base roof cladding. Wish I had a Digital.

[twincitizen]

[Minnekid]

Thoughts so far are that I can't tell yet if it will look good or not lol, and that it is not that big of a library. Just a regular one story library.

[aeisenberg]

And here's the glass:

[Nathan]

All the street level glass is in, and they have put in some neon yellow glass in the pop ups, fitting the corner nicely!

image: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0dqmu7qk9wgk6 ... 095911.jpg

[John]

Biked by it the other day. Has a nice scale and I really like how the angle on the southeast corner plays off the theater. Pedestrian friendly and transparent on the ground level. A dramatic improvement over the previous library.

[MNdible]

I was also by this the other day -- it does look really nice, but where's the front door? Not at the corner, where' I'd have expected it.

[bubzki2]

I imagine they left that corner mostly glass to give great views of the active street life while encouraging users to take advantage of their new greenspace?

[seanrichardryan]

Siding going on this morning facing the mall. Looks like stamped brick.

[Wedgeguy]

The front door will be on the north-east corner of the building basically facing the Hennepin Transit Center.

[Wedgeguy]

Not sure what the new siding is made of, or what type of metal it is supposed to be mimicking. Either way from the nice area of metal that was up as of 10/14 it looks very nice and yes, somewhat a smaller brick like pattern.

[Nathan]

If I saw them both correctly... It's the same pattern as the stamped metal paneling on the Dock Street Apartments.

[John]

If I saw them both correctly... It's the same pattern as the stamped metal paneling on the Dock Street Apartments.

Yes , very similar but the library paneling has more of a bronze tone. Will look striking.

[Wedgeguy]

THe north end of the building is getting close to being covered. they have been working to get the upper section of the west wall covered which it looks like they have done as I walked by yesterday. The sidewalks have been poured in front and on the Lagoon side of the building so that they should be able to start working on the siding along those street facing sides. I'll guess that the west side of the first floor will be the last walls that they get sided as they want to get the streets back to normal before the snow falls.

[lordmoke]

Whole buncha pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hennepinco ... 778731426/

[mplser]

it seems so... small in those pictures

[David Greene]

it seems so... small in those pictures

It *is* small! I don't think people understood how much space was in the old library building. Yes, that building had to come down but I really don't get all the fawning over this replacement on this forum. A single-level library is not great. It's probably not even adequate for this area. And yes, it should have had housing and/or retail as part of it. Sure it would have been taller than the Uptown theater, but so are many buildings in the area.

[Wedgeguy]

The library is about a block long, but seems narrow due to it's length. Remember that all of the back house functions are now all along the west wall instead of stuck back in the corner. I'd say that it has a larger usable floorspace than the old building. But they did not gain that much.

[David Greene]

The library is about a block long, but seems narrow due to it's length. Remember that all of the back house functions are now all along the west wall instead of stuck back in the corner. I'd say that it has a larger usable floorspace than the old building. But they did not gain that much.

Remember that the old library had two floors of space.