What does downtown need the most, aside from office workers to return?
Small, unique buildings. Even small, boring buildings will do.
When people look at old pictures of downtown, they sigh with nostalgia over the crowded streets, the thrum of urban vitality.
That didn't happen just because there were department stores and movie theaters downtown. It wasn't because everything was big. It was because there was also much that was small.
Consider a small structure, the fate of which seems uncertain: the Minneapolis Club annex, most recently a Life Time fitness.
Built in 1974, it's on 7th Street, between 2nd and 3rd avenues, is empty now, but it's never looked occupied. It's a peculiar building. It's not beloved. Blank facade, except for some opaque windows on the side, and a row of windows over the door. It looks like a bunker, but a stylish one.
The owners recently proposed demolishing it, and using the space for parking. In the current anti-car mood, this is like paving half of Loring Park and opening up the rest for coal mining.
It's not just the loss of a building for parking that might rankle. It's the loss of something that wasn't enormous.