Mark Burgess
Principal at U+B Architecture & Design
In his 25-year career, Minneapolis architect Mark Burgess has designed five-star hotels, condominiums, luxury apartments, schools, restaurants and single-family homes. Burgess worked for firms in Pennsylvania, Texas, California and Minnesota before he and Paul Udris launched U+B Architecture & Design in Minneapolis in 2003. In the past decade, the 13-person firm has designed notable projects including Spoonriver restaurant in downtown Minneapolis and the Assoufid Hotel and Golf Clubhouse in Marrakech, Morocco.
The firm also designs projects for Aveda Corp. founder Horst Rechelbacher, including his Intelligent Nutrients store at the Mall of America, which is the testing ground for 200 stores planned worldwide. The firm is designing an Intelligent Nutrients store in New York. U+B designed Rechelbacher's 18,000-square-foot downtown Minneapolis condo and his New York City penthouse apartment. U+B was also the interior designer for 7west, a new luxury apartment building at Seven Corners in Minneapolis, on the site of the former Grandma's Saloon & Grill. The firm collaborated with Tushie Montgomery Architects and Martha Dayton Design on the project.
Q: 7west developer Curt Gunsbury brought in a feng shui consultant to advise on the design. How was it to work with the feng shui concept, which essentially is aimed at balancing the energies of a space?
A: Frankly, I was a little apprehensive at first, but the consultant was really easy to work with. … I've had people talk about feng shui almost like an adjective; it becomes shorthand for good layout. But I've never worked with a true expert. What's interesting to me is that dates really matter with feng shui — like the date of the groundbreaking. Also, there are "good" dimensions and "bad" dimensions, so we had to change the dimensions of the front desk.
Q: What are the highlights of 7west's design?
A: The second-floor public spaces are amazing and include a two-story "tea house" with exterior spaces on either side that include a rooftop tea garden.
Q: Prominent public spaces seem to be a hot trend today for upscale apartments.
A: Yes. There's been a big shift from apartments just being a place where you live to a place where people hang out. The social spaces have become increasingly important as a selling point for the units. You'll have swimming pools, gyms, rooftop decks and bocce ball courts.
Q: How do you get started on a design — whether it's a small home remodel or multimillion-dollar project?
A: We really begin from a functional standpoint. A lot of people think architects work from — "I have this great vision of what I want this thing to look like." I usually start from the idea of how's it going to work? … I think if you make something functional, it's easy to make it beautiful.
Liz Wolf is a freelance writer in Eagan. She can be reached at wolfliz99@aol.com.