Great adaptations in Architecture Minnesota
There are great original designs and there are great adaptations. The most recent issue of Architecture Minnesota focuses on great adaptations, as in building adaptations. Topping the list is Elness Swenson and Graham's reuse of the F&M Bank in Minneapolis into a Westin Hotel. Also on the list, according to the magazine, are "MS&R's thoughtful restoration of a rough, industrial Philadelphia shipping yard into Urban Outfitter's headquarters is also featured. [...] The City of Albert Lea is ahead of the curve with adaptive reuse as it spurs the redevelopment of the Freeborn Bank building."

I haven't been to Philadelphia or Albert Lea lately, so I can't comment on the reuse of the industrial shipping yard or the small town bank. But the former big bank in downtown Minneapolis is a swanky place for drinks and romance. B.A.N.K. has already received a reputation for its blueberry mojito, a fruity, blue high. The bar/restaurant, which is in the handsome wood lobby of the art deco bank, also offers private dining rooms, which I should book for a holiday party. Cheers.

Jane Jacobs retrospective
Robert Moses, New York's builder-kingpin, was the subject of three exhibitions earlier in the year at the Museum of the City of New York, the Queen Museum of Art and Columbia University. Now his nemesis, Jane Jacobs, gets her chance to shine. In Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York, the Municipal Art Society aims to reevaluate "the legacy and values of renowned New York activist Jane Jacobs through the lens of the city of today and tomorrow using images, text and multimedia."

Jacobs, of course, is the author of the Death and Life of Great American Cities. According to Edward Rothstein's review in the New York Times, the exhibit focuses on Jacobs' view that there are "four key qualities of healthy, vibrant cities." Those qualities are mixed-use streets, short blocks that encourage interaction, buildings with different purposes placed side-by-side (those buildings should also be of different ages) and a concentration of stuff all in one place to encourage urban diversity.

Rothstein writes that the exhibit celebrates Jacobs views, but doesn't challenge them. His article also quotes a letter Moses wrote to the publisher of "Death and Life of Great American Cities." Upon receiving a copy of the text, he sent it back with this note: "I am returning the book you sent me. Aside from the fact that it is intemperate and inaccurate, it is also libelous."

Here is a link to a New York Times slideshow of the exhibit.

FLW home in stunning 360-degree photography
I read the article on Virginia Loveness selling her 1954 Frank Lloyd Wright home in White Bear Lake. It was nice. And so were the photographs. But neither print version compares to the super cool photographs on the Strib's website. Click on the 360-degree photos and you can spin around to get a you-are-there view of the house and its surroundings. You can look left and right, up and down, just as if you were standing there. If you don't have a broadband Internet connection, you might want to buy the house: The price tag is $3.75 million.

Calatrava complained to Pawlenty about I-35W bridge bidding process
The Star Tribune reports that world famous architect Santiago Calatrava wrote a letter to Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty eight days ago expressing frustration with the I-35W bridge bidding process.

wrote. The Spanish-born architect, known for his innovative bridge designs, teamed with Walsh/American Bridge team. "After working so hard on the design and creating over 130 drawings and two models, we are very disappointed that we have not had the opportunity to present our proposal," Calatrava wrote. MnDOT awarded the contract to Flatiron Constructors of Colorado.

Calatrava has many fans in Minnesota, including Ed Kodet of Kodet Architectural Group. In 2004, Kodet and a colleague wrote that “Santiago Calatrava exemplifies sculptural expression and engineering through architecture. Calatrava’s work is like music: well orchestrated. It is architecture that delights and finds new meaning each time it is experienced.” Those words are from a nomination Kodet made to award Calatrava with the AIA 2005 Gold Medal.

Can you spare $53.5 million?
The Pioneer Press reports that Jim and Joanne Jundt are selling their 1918 Pillsbury mansion for a cool $53.5 million. Located on the edge of Lake Minnetonka, the house has 9 bedrooms, 16 bathrooms and sits on 12.6 acres of land. You can take a virtual tour here.

Learn about Sullivan, Purcell and Elmslie
If you've always wanted to learn more about Prairie School architecture, you might want to sign up for an upcoming class on the subject through the University of Minnesota's Compleat Scholar program.

Led by architectural historian Richard Kronick, students signing up for the course will "learn about the Arts and Crafts movement and how artists and architects in England set the stage for a revolutionary new way of creating and designing. Through richly illustrated slide lectures [students] will learn about the basic tenets of Prairie School architecture, key figures in the movement, and how the progressive ideals were applied to commercial buildings and private residences." The class meets for three Mondays beginning October 1. (Photo courtesy of Minneapolis Institute of Arts)

Basilica of St. Mary celebrates 100th birthday
I'm a non-believer. But on days when I want to clear my mind, I sneak over to the Basilica of St. Mary on the edge of downtown Minneapolis. It's a quiet place to be alone, taking a breather from cellphones, e-mail and the struggles of daily life. Kari Vanderveen of the Downtown Journal reports that the congregation at the Basilica has spent the past 16 years getting ready for its 100th birthday. With renovation efforts in 1991, 1998, 2004 and recently, the Basilica's dome and copper roof have been repaired, meeting rooms and an art gallery have been added, and windows have been replaced or cleaned. Now through Sunday, the Basilica's art gallery is hosting an archival exhibit of the building's history. Check it out. (Photo by Todd Melby)

Watch the Jim Dayton/MacPhail slideshow
The new MacPhail Center for Music opens its doors in just four months. You can get a sneak preview, along with architect Jim Dayton's analysis, in this Building Minnesota slideshow. The vast majority of photos in this presentation were shot by Scott Theisen. However, the closeups of the Cor-Ten are a bit dated. The recent rains have given the material a more finished quality.

MacPhail Center for Music,
designed by Jim Dayton, nears completion





For about 75 years, the MacPhail Center for Music has occupied a four-story, brick building in downtown Minneapolis. The school doesn’t have much in the way of performance space. It also lacks soundproof practice rooms and humidity control for sensitive instruments.

"You can walk around the old building at MacPhail and you’re not exactly sure what happens here," said David O’Fallon, MacPhail’s president. "It does look a little bit like an old department store fallen on hard times."

That was intentional. MacPhail opened in 1907, founded by a Minneapolis Symphony concertmaster. But owners of the building housing McPhail thought the school might not live up to its name. So they constructed a building that looks like a store.



"It has some odd things built in here," O'Fallon said. "There is no really good performing space. There is an auditorium on the fourth floor, which is pretty small. Low ceilings, not such good acoustics."

Today, about 7,000 students take classes at MacPhail. There are courses on Irish fiddle, jazz, singing, composition and rock guitar.

O’Fallon became president five years ago. By that time, MacPhail’s board of directors had already decided to construct a new building. It had even hired a Chicago-based architect to draw up plans. But that design wasn’t generating much enthusiasm. So one board member suggested that O’Fallon meet Jim Dayton, a Minneapolis architect.



"I think architecture should be fun," Dayton said. "It think it should be sculptural and organic and dynamic."

The pair hit it off immediately.

"I called him the next day," O'Fallon said. "You know, Jim, I’d really like to make you the guy we work with in the future. Would work on speculation for a while? He said, Oh, I’m already doing sketches. I said, Right, this is the right guy."

Jim Dayton is the great-great grandson of George Draper Dayton. That Dayton founded the successful Minneapolis department store chain. But Jim Dayton had no desire to work in retail. Instead, Dayton majored in architecture at Yale. He later earned a master’s degree in architecture at the University of Virginia. Then he was forced to choose between two job offers: One from Frank Gehry, the other from Thomas Mayne.

Both Gehry and Mayne are architecture superstars based in Santa Monica,
California. Dayton chose to work with Gehry because he loved the designer’s unusual use of materials and shapes.

"Design is a language," Dayton said. "Frank [Gehry] might be the poet laureate of his particular Santa Monica school language. I’m just trying to learn some of the syntax and vocabulary. I’m trying to create my own verses out of the same kind of language. But it’s not … it wouldn’t be good to copy. It’s a very fine line."

Before MacPhail, Dayton’s firm designed the Minnetonka Center for the Arts ...



... and two condo projects: the Bookman Lofts ...



and Bookman Stacks in Minneapolis.



For MacPhail, Dayton’s approach was to open the music school up to its surroundings. This is a big change from its current department-store-like building.

The new building is 55,000 square-feet and will cost $13.5 million. It includes a six-story tower clad in silvery zinc. The tower contains 57 soundproof studios and office space.

The tower’s edges curve gently so they’re not quite perpendicular to the ground.



"I think a lot of people don’t quite get it," Dayton said. "We kind of joke a lot about it in the office. Initially when people see our first passes at models, very often they say, 'The walls aren’t going to be tipped like that, are they?'"

In front of the tower is a squat chocolate-colored box. The box is covered with Cor-Ten steel. It’s a material favored by many sculptors. It turns a rich, velvety brown as it ages. Inside the box is a large performance space. A giant picture window gives musicians a chance to share their talents with the city.



"This building is exciting because it’s open," O'Fallon said. "It reveals to the world. Something really interesting is going on here."

Vincent James is one of the city’s best-known architects. He’s been watching the construction of the MacPhail Center for Music. "Minnesotans are sometimes a little conservative about materials and form and their aspirations for architecture," James said. "And Jim’s building is bold and confident."



MacPhail Center for Music is scheduled to open in January 2008.

To listen to an audio version of this story, subscribe to the Building Minnesota podcast at iTunes or the podlounge.

(Photo of current MacPhail Center for Music by Todd Melby. Photo of Minnetonka Center for Arts and models of MacPhail courtesy of James Dayton Design. All other photos by Scott Theisen.)

Fisher co-authors new book on the design of architecture schools
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Thomas Fisher, dean of the UM College of Design, has co-authored a new book on the architecture of architecture schools. Called "Designing for Designers: Lessons Learned From Schools of Architecture," Fisher wrote and edited the book with two other Midwest academics: Jack Nasar at Ohio State University and Wolfgang F.E. Preiser at the University of Cincinnati.

Too often, the design of architecture schools fail to meet expectations, the authors write. “When people buy a product, they expect it to look good and work well, such as the universally designed line of kitchen utensils by OXO. The same philosophy should be applied in architecture.”

Preservation conference slated for Twin Cities on Oct. 2-6
The National Trust for Historic Preservation will hold its annual conference in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul., from October 2-6. The event is expected to attract 2,000 preservationists from throughout the United States.

Several field sessions are sheduled, including these presentations:

• Modernism in Minneapolis: Modernist monuments in downtown Minneapolis tell the story of the city’s struggle to reinvent itself from the 1950s to the 1970s.
• Behemoths: From a massive Hamm’s Brewery to a 2 million square-foot Sears store, Minneapolis has several examples of former “behemoths” that have been successfully adapted into new uses.
• Sustainable Energy and Adaptive Reuse: Several conference sessions will explore exciting trends in green building and sustainable design in adaptive reuse projects.
• Heritage Preservation in a First-Ring Suburb: Tour will focus on the Minneapolis suburb of Edina. Topics will include the preservation value of shopping malls and how to interpret suburban historic sites.
• Farmsteads on the Fringe: Tour will explore the effect of urban expansion on Minnesota’s rural heritage.

Conference registration information can be found here.

The new lego?
If you ignore the business section of newspaper, you probably missed Monday's Star Tribune story on Q-ba-maze, a toy created by architect Andrew Comfort. In that article, Comfort told a reporter he caught the design bug while a college student."That was when I figured out for myself that I love making things," he said. You can learn more about the product at the company's website.

9 projects win Aga Khan Awards
The Aga Khan Awards for Architecture occur once every three years and include prizes totalling $500,000. Winning projects must benefit Muslims (Aga Khan is a "direct descendant of the prophet Muhammad," according to the Washington Post). However, the architects themselves don't need to be Muslim — Cesar Pelli won three years ago for Petronas Towers in Malaysia.

At the awards ceremony in New Dehli yesterday, nine projects won recognition. The Washington Post and Ottawa Citizen both offer readers in-depth reports.

The winners:

• Samir Kassir Square, Beirut, Lebanon

• Rehabilitation of the City of Shibam, Yemen
(Photo courtesy of AFP, Getty Images)



• Central Market, Koudougou, Burkina Faso

• University of Technology Petronas, Bandar Seri Iskandar, Malaysia

• Restoration of the Amiriya Complex, Rada, Yemen

• Moulmein Rise Residential Tower, Singapore

• Royal Netherlands Embassy, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

• Rehabilitation of the Walled City, Nicosia, Cyprus

• School in Rudrapur, Dinajpur, Bangladesh

I wish my Dad were an architect
I spent a big chunk of my childhood in a relatively treeless suburb. It was a great place to play wiffleball and tackle football, but treehouses were out of the question. That ain't the case for Andrew Birch's children.

Birch is a Minnetonka-based architect whose Dymaxion Treefort was recently featured on the Open Architecture Network, a project of Architecture for Humanity. The Dymaxion Treefort is one-part treehouse, one-part spaceship and 100 percent fun (by the the looks of it).

"This is not a serious effort, per se, but it occurred to me that someone might find it useful as a temporary shelter concept or an above-group cold frame for plantings or storage," Birch wrote. "My young boys asked me in the winter of 2006 to build them a spaceship treehouse."

Click on the link for Dymaxion Treefort (above) for more details.

Rubbing out history: One small building at a time

Jacobson Fuel and Transfer
West 29th Street near Lyndale Avenue South
Minneapolis


By Bob Roscoe

In the late 19th century pre-petro economy of Minneapolis, small wood-framed buildings such as Jacobson Fuel and Transfer Company served small business and residential enclaves with the most basic of human needs to serve this emerging metropolis: Fuel to provide warmth and operate steam-driven machinery as well as hauling heavy materials and business goods by horse-drawn wagons throughout the city.



The revitalization around the Lyndale-Lake area and its accompanying sprouting of new condominium structures is stretching into this area’s back streets. The long-vacant Jacobson building, located on West 29th Street just west of Lyndale Avenue South, will soon make way for new development.

Recently, developers applied to the city inspections department for a demolition permit for the Jacobson Fuel and Transfer Company, began the demo process while they were waiting for approval. As workers began to strip off the outer layers of added cladding, they revealed the building’s original faded black siding with big and bold painted super-graphic-like sign lettering on the front façade. On the east side, multi-colored layers of painted advertising signs have faded and peeled into a Jackson Pollock-like unintended work of art.



City processes agreed to demolition, after acknowledging a missed opportunity to record Jacobson Fuel and Transfer as a potential historic resource. Instead, it will become part of building development of a different sort – its façade will join a line-up in a recreated yester-year village near Hastings, as historic preservation becomes imperfect history. (Photos by Bob Roscoe)

Bob Roscoe is owner of Design for Preservation and is involved in Preserve Minneapolis, a local historic preservation group.