Rapson Cube in Architecture Week

Writers Jane King Hession, Rip Rapson and Bruce N. Wright report on Ralph Rapson's iconic Glass Cube in Architecture Week. The weekend getaway near Amery, Wisconsin was constructed in 1974 and is among the Minnesota architect's great works. The trio wrote Ralph Rapson: Sixty Years of Modern Design, a book that was released at about the time of the Weisman Art Museum and Minneapolis Institute of Arts retrospectives a few years ago. While noodling around the web, I also found a insightful profile on Rapson by writer Burl Gilyard. And then there's a Q & A with Rapson on the MPR website. (Photo by Ralph Rapson)

Here's another video from the Solutions Twin Cities folks. This one is more riveting than the introduction video (see below), mostly because it includes photos. Alchemy Architects big project is the weeHouse, a prefab. This vid has photos of the weeHouse on a semi-truck and the weeHouse added to the top of Phillips Garden at 26th and Cedar.

By the way, Solutions Twin Cities is a series of events that encourages local artists, designers and activists to share ideas about how to make the world a better place. And it all starts with a succinct presentation.The core event is a rapid-fire exchange of ideas consisting of short presentations called “Solution Sets" where each speakers is allowed just 6 minutes and 40 seconds to share his or her idea.

If you haven't heard of Architecture for Humanity- Minnesota, this video from a Solutions Twin Cities event, offers a great introduction.

Twins stadium groundbreaking set for Thursday
The Minnesota Twins playoff hopes are fading fast, but the team is moving forward with plans for a groundbreaking party on Thursday afternoon. Former and current players, Major League Baseball President Bud Selig and others plan to attend. The free festivities get underway at 4 p.m. at the site of the new, open air ballpark, located near downtown Minneapolis.

Push for Calatrava to design I-35W bridge picks up steam
The Star Tribune reported yesterday that Peter Kitchak is continuing to push for Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava to design the new I-35W span. Governor Tim Pawlenty appears open to the idea, but his spokesman says Calatrava -- or any other designer -- needs to team up with a construction contractor and get their proposal into MnDOT by the Sept. 10 deadline. Kitchak has asked the governor to ease up on the timeline to make design a priority. Tom Fisher, University of Minnesota College of Design dean, thinks that's a good idea.

"Whatever we do there is going to get international attention," Fisher says. "If you have to hire a bridge designer anyway, why not hire a good one? ... I just think it's a no-brainer."

Calatrava isn't the only star bridge designer that should be considered, Fisher says. He points to the work of Christian Menn. Menn, who lives in Switzerland, created the design for the Bunker Hill Bridge in Boston ...


The Sunniberg bridge in the Klosters, a ski resort near Zurich ...

... and many other projects.

For more information on Calatrava, check out his firm's website. It has photos of past and current projects, which include the Chicago Spire (a 2,000-foot tower that looks like a drill pointing towards the heavens) ...


... and the WTC Transportation Hub in New York.

To learn more about Calatrava, check out this New Yorker article from 2005. Then there was this super lengthy piece, The Hole in the City's Heart, published in the New York Times on Sept. 11, 2006. Journalist Deborah Sontag chronicles the lack of progress in rebuilding Ground Zero five years after the attack on America. The 18,058-word story won a Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society for Professional Journalists.

In the story, Sontag paints vivid portraits of Calatrava and other key players: World Trade Center owner Larry A. Silverstein; architect Daniel Libeskind (designer of the Jewish Museum in Berlin); architect David Childs of Skidmore, Owens & Merrill; architect Michael Arad of the New York City Housing Authority. It's worth a read.

Architecture on a stick
Michael Bauer, a San Francisco food critic, traveled to the Minnesota State Fair recently. Bauer, like many fair first-timers from far away, was smitten with what he found. In his Between Meals blog, Bauer writes that the fair is "a homey, retro event that stands in stark contrast to the modern skyline, filled with architecture that make cities like San Francisco seems mundane." He didn't elaborate much on the architecture, but there's lots of dicsussion of deep fried goodies. I plan to attend the fair on Friday and deep in my stomach I know all my bicyling and swimming in the next couple of days won't make up for my calorie intake at the fair.

Elness Swenson Graham wins
AIA Minnesota Firm Award


Minneapolis-based Elness Swenson Graham Architects (ESG) has won the AIA Minnesota Firm Award. According to the AIA, ESG "was selected for this award based on the tremendous impact they have had on the Twin Cities and the region in the area of urban design, residential and mixed-use housing. The firm is unparalleled in this area and has made a significant contribution to the communities in which they have worked."

Recent ESG projects include Excelsior & Grand in St. Louis Park, Midtown Lofts in Minneapolis and Reflections in Bloomington (pictured above).

The Firm Award Selection Committee noted that "ESG’s broad range of work in several building sectors is neatly and skillfully woven into the fabric of neighborhoods, achieving environmentally sound and pedestrian-friendly buildings and public spaces." (Photo by Todd Melby)

Lineup set for Historic Milwaukee Avenue Home Tour


My neighbors and I are throwing a party. On Sunday, Sept. 23, we'll be hosting the first-ever Historic Milwaukee Avenue Home Tour. It's your chance to peek inside 1890s workman's cottages and other cool, old houses. It's also a chance for me to answer once and for all the questions I'm frequently asked while lounging on my front porch on Milwaukee Avenue, a street that doesn't allow cars. Those questions include: How did this happen? How old are these houses? What are they like inside? Do these houses ever go up for sale? And, where do you park?

Photos of the houses on the tour and story summaries are available at the home tour site (click the link above). Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 on the day of the event. Call (651) 293-9047 to purchase. All proceeds from the event benefit the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota and Seward Neighborhood Group.

The return of Linda Mack
Yesterday's Star Tribune included a story on the design potential of the new I-35W bridge. While safety will be the most important aspect of the bridge, Mack, the newspaper's former architecture critic, points out that the Minnesota Department of Transportation's RFP asks companies to include "vision quality requirements" as part of their proposals. "We need to do this right. We want to do something that, when we look back, we can be proud of," says Kevin Western of MnDOT. Mack reports that Peter Kitchak, a real-estate consultant, is pushing for Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava to be involved. Word is Calatrava, who has designed many high-profile projects, is interested.

On another Mack-related note, Brian Lambert of The Rake reports that Mack will be writing for MinnPost when the website becomes a reality later this year.

Opening soon: Midtown Greenway bridge



The 2,200 Midtown Greenway bridge in Minneapolis is scheduled to open in November. That's perfect timing for those tough winter bicyclists to zoom across Hiawatha Avenue in sub-freezing temps. (Chances are, I won't be among them.) The $5.1 million bridge is the state's first cable-stay bridge, which means that the cables you see in this photo ...



... are what keeps the bridge erect. At least that's what I think it means. Here's how the St. Paul Pioneer Press explained it this morning: "In cable-stayed bridges, the cables are attached to a pylon, which bears the load. Engineers chose the design because of unique obstacles at the site, including the Hiawatha light-rail line and high-power transmission lines on the east side."

Another cool feature of the new bridge is that lights will be "built into the horizontal wire fencing," thereby eliminating the need for lampposts. The angled beam that juts into the sky and the dozens of cables give the whole thing a slight Santiago Calatrava feel. He's the architect behind the Milwaukee Art Museum addition, several Spanish projects and a spiral skyscraper condo project in Chicago (not yet completed).



What do you think of the new bridge? How has construction affected your commute?

Minneapolis Midtown Greenway

If you've never been on the Midtown Greenway -- what some riders are calling the Bicycle SuperHighway -- this video will give you a virtual experience. There's a bug on the camera at about 2:04 to give it that "real" feeling. And the music, if I'm not mistaken, is from the Minneapolis-based Atmosphere.

St. Paul: Pretty vacant
Rising foreclosure rates and the usual urban woes are prompting St. Paul to address the issue of unoccupied homes and businesses. As of Aug. 1, the city lists 1,198 vacant properties, mostly single-family homes and duplexes. The Star Tribune reports that Mayor Chris Coleman wants to spend $25 million to fix up abandoned buildings in Frogtown, Dayton's Bluff, Lower East Side and the North End.

The vacancies have also been discussed in recent weeks on the e-democracy listserv. In this post, Guy Western says, "I'm having a hard time ... getting anyone to pay much attention to the blight that occurs to the neighborhood, after [foreclosure], when the vacant properties begin to deteriorate."

Historic Saint Paul is hosting a brown bag lunch discussion to talk about the issue at noon on September 6 at 317 Landmark Center. The panelists include: Ed Johnson of West 7th/Fort Road Federation; Bob Kessler of the city's Department of Safety and Inspections; Steve Magner, St. Paul's Vacant Buildings Supervisor; Marcia Moermond, St. Paul policy analyst and Amy Spong, a historic preservation specialist.

What do you think St. Paul and other cities should do to get vacant properties occupied again? Or refurbished? How big of a problem is this in your neighborhood?

From impound lot to housing?
Like many other reporters in town, I spent a big chunk of the last week covering the collapse of the I-35W bridge (here, here and here). That's probably why I missed a potentially important development/architecture story. On Aug. 2, the Star Tribune reported that Minneapolis wants to sell 56 acres of land near its impound lot on the edge of downtown. Three developers came forward with plans: Ryan Companies, James Dayton Design and Investment Property Services. Ryan and Dayton propose to build housing on the site; IPS wants to construct an international aquatic center. I recently interviewed Dayton about MacPhail Center for Music, a project in the city's riverfront district, due to open in January 2008. (I'll post that story here within the next week or so.)

Both Ryan and Dayton are proposing lots of housing: 950-1,500 units for Ryan and 1,600 units for Dayton. A large amount of housing in a small amount of space should be seen as a good thing, Dayton argues. "Density is a scary word to some people, but the reality is that we need to take advantage of secondary sites like these near downtown, rather than going further out, chewing up cornfields and contributing to sprawl," he said.

3-2-1 blastoff!
The return of the Brackett Park rocket



Brackett Park, an unpretentious getaway tucked into the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis, had been long been known as "rocket park." From 1962-2004, a metal rocket was the park's centerpiece. Children, including my two boys, regularly climbed the rocket's ladder into an imaginary playland filled with dreams of outer space and exploration.



In 2003, I wrote this about the rocket for the Seward Profile, now the Bridge newspaper:

"Dashan Washington had to climb 11 rungs on three metal ladders to reach the controls of the Brackett Park moon rocket. But even on a chilly afternoon, it was worth the trip.

"From his perch high above the park, the 10-year-old could grab a makeshift steering wheel and imagine soaring above the clouds. Still, he had a few complaints about the 42-year-old rocket, which may be removed as part of a playground renovation later this year.

"“They ought to make it so the wheel turns and stuff moves,” Washington said, while a 6-year-old cousin straggled up the ladder behind him.

"Installed in 1962, just one year after President John F. Kennedy urged the nation to support efforts to reach the moon by 1970, the aging rocket has seen better days. Orange paint is peeling from its base, graffiti obscures several surfaces and many parents say the approximately 30-foot-high relic isnt without its hazards.

"Two summers ago, Cara Letofsky’s daughter managed to get her head stuck in between the vertical slats on the rocket’s third level.

“She freaked,” Letofsky said.

"Letofsky, who was pregnant at the time, couldn’t squeeze through the 15-inch openings between levels. However, she had the foresight to have another adult follow her two-year-old up the rocket. That person unlodged the young girl, who wasn’t injured."

I drove by the park on Monday afternoon and there it was again! The Brackett Park rocket returns in all its 1960s glory. Brackett Park Boosters and FORECAST Public Artworks teamed up to raise funds for the rocket's return, hosting pancake breakfasts (I remember attending the yummy one a couple of years ago at the Town Talk Diner), movies at the Riverview Theater and other events.

Randy Walker designed the slightly-angled presentation, cables and platform for the rocket. Held in place by 84 steel cables, the rocket now stands about 35 feet high. If you'd like to visit the rocket, make your way over to 28th Street and 36th Avenue South. It's just north of the Midtown Greenway. (Photos by Todd Melby)