What's your reaction to this building?
If it's mild interest, as in "where is it going and how much does it cost?" then you would seem to be normal and well-adjusted. If you think "this might be a missed opportunity; what else was proposed?" then you might be an architect. If it makes you angry, then you might be an internet comment writer.
Yes, angry. I've lost the link and it probably doesn't matter, but you can imagine the response: give it up downtown is crime-wriddin who wants to live in these boxes wake up sheeple It's just bizarre. The downtown housing boom will peak, but that has nothing to do with some grand conspiracy to make people live downtown against their will. Everyone gets in on the act, supply exceeds demand,
Then there are people who angry with a building for different reasons: the latest attempt to build something in Linden Hills got a thumbs-down from the neighbors. You'd think the developer was putting in a 30-story concrete block. Pity the people who do move into the building, if it's constructed; cold shoulders from everyone. Oh you moved into THAT THING? Pardon me if I don't drop over with a hot dish any time soon. Interloper. Anyway, here's the design:
You can see exactly what the building is trying to do. It's made with neighborhood hate in mind. "I'm four stories, yes, I admit it, but don't I sorta look like there's just two? C'mon! I'm doing my best!"
In related news: before ISIL blows up Palmyra, here's why the site is so important.
As long as we're going back in time: MPR has a nice round-up of late-Depression shots of Minneapolis, including some great shots of the Gateway.
It was low-rent bumtown by the end of the 30s, and staggered on like that for another decade and a half before it was razed. No one thought to save it. If the urban planners of that era had their way in Palmyra, it would have been demolished long ago for featureless blocks of housing.
