greenleaf
Senior Member
I recently went back to Minneapolis where I am from and took lots of photos. It was interesting to see how these buildings seemed to all be built with care and interest. For a medium US city, it's important that each building stand out its own way. The IDS Center still looks fantastic, 35 years old.
Overall, the architecture was great. The planning still has some work to do. Despite its status as a very livable city, its citizens almost entirely depend on the car. The downtown population is growing, but there is still no grocery store to be found. There is a two story Target, for what it's worth.
Downtown is almost all one way streets. However, many streets are in the process of being converted to two ways. I recent poll showed about 4-5% of residents commute by bike (2nd highest in US next to Portland). There are bike lanes on major roads going through downtown.
I decided to split the pictures up into new buildings and old buildings. Mpls has lots of old great art deco type buildings, but also some good looking glass ones, and a few other oddities thrown in. Part 2 will feature the old ones.
Here are the "new" buildings! (All photos by me)
The skyline from a number of angles:
Nicollet Mall (Pedestrian, buses & taxis) with virtually no pedestrians on a Monday morning around 9:30 am.
Bus shelter with heating elements (and looking a little like X Condo)
This building always reminded me of broccoli:
How to build an interesting glass box (cut up the top):
225 South 6th St Building (I love the half halo on top):
IDS Tower:
with Target Building in the foreground:
The new downtown central library by Cesar Pelli. It's hard to tell from the photos, but the whitish glass is actually etchings of birch trees on the glass.
The new Walker Art Center by Herzog & de Meuron. I think it looks like a Barracuda.
It's too bad that it's located right on the highway (it goes underground briefly at this huge intersection):
This modern beauty looks good at night:
Plaza in downtown across the street from City Hall:
I believe this used to be a government building:
McNamara Alumni Center on U of MN campus (Antoine Predock, architect):
Gehry's Weisman Art Museum on U of MN Campus:
Jean Nouvel's stunning and sharp Guthrie Theater building:
new park next door:
Overall, the architecture was great. The planning still has some work to do. Despite its status as a very livable city, its citizens almost entirely depend on the car. The downtown population is growing, but there is still no grocery store to be found. There is a two story Target, for what it's worth.
Downtown is almost all one way streets. However, many streets are in the process of being converted to two ways. I recent poll showed about 4-5% of residents commute by bike (2nd highest in US next to Portland). There are bike lanes on major roads going through downtown.
I decided to split the pictures up into new buildings and old buildings. Mpls has lots of old great art deco type buildings, but also some good looking glass ones, and a few other oddities thrown in. Part 2 will feature the old ones.
Here are the "new" buildings! (All photos by me)
The skyline from a number of angles:
Nicollet Mall (Pedestrian, buses & taxis) with virtually no pedestrians on a Monday morning around 9:30 am.
Bus shelter with heating elements (and looking a little like X Condo)
This building always reminded me of broccoli:
How to build an interesting glass box (cut up the top):
225 South 6th St Building (I love the half halo on top):
IDS Tower:
with Target Building in the foreground:
The new downtown central library by Cesar Pelli. It's hard to tell from the photos, but the whitish glass is actually etchings of birch trees on the glass.
The new Walker Art Center by Herzog & de Meuron. I think it looks like a Barracuda.
It's too bad that it's located right on the highway (it goes underground briefly at this huge intersection):
This modern beauty looks good at night:
Plaza in downtown across the street from City Hall:
I believe this used to be a government building:
McNamara Alumni Center on U of MN campus (Antoine Predock, architect):
Gehry's Weisman Art Museum on U of MN Campus:
Jean Nouvel's stunning and sharp Guthrie Theater building:
new park next door:
But parts of downtown St. Louis itself seemed to be doing just fine despite a few sections of the city looking like they had been erased by the bulldozer tool in SimCity. Then again, touristy areas usually do fine...perhaps those bombed out areas are more vibrant than they seem......well, except the Pruitt-Igoe area.
