| 5 random photos of the Minneapolis Convention Center from the photoset on www.flickr.com
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I have begun to compile a phototour of the Convention Center in Minneapolis.
- Click here to see the photo set of the Convention Center on Flickr
- Click here to see a map of the set's photographs
I have had a range of reactions to the convention center's design and architecture over the last few years.
I walk around the Convention Center everyday on my way to work. I drive around it everytime I leave the highway. Like it or not, this is a building that plays a prominent (and large) part in my daily life.
And my Mom once told me she thought it was a very ugly building.
Now who can be objective after all of that?
Nonetheless, I've come to have a greater appreciation of the building over time. Below is a summary of some my reactions to, and observations about, the Minneapolis Convention Center:
- My early reactions were generally not positive to the Convention Center. I still think the exterior of the building is one of the poorer examples Minneapolis architecture.
- The building (size, color, design) seems to have little respect to the neighborhood context (then again, what convention center really "fits" the neighborhood?). The back of the building faces the city (the residential area) and the newest addition resulted in a fairly major bypass of 3rd Avenue (or marked as "Clinton Avenue" on the map). If they had built the road through the building - now that would be special.
- I have been pretty impresed with the Center's relation to the large greenspace area in the front of the building. There is a good connection between the Center and park-like area. Tis is one of the few green / public spaces in downtown Minneapolis and deserves credit as such.
- As I began to walk through the building I started to notice interesting interior design elements. A ceiling grid/pattern here, and visual cue there. Interest has been peaked.
- I feel the interior color scheme isn't great and already looks dated
- I have tried to spend more time inside the building lately, which I find to be far more enjoyable to the visitor than the city resident.
- The inside - and particularly the exhibit halls - are quite interesting to look at. The building is HUGE (hence my initial observation on its size was not totally in error)
- The space itself (the entire building) acts as a hybrid privatized-public-space. It is a dailty pathway for pedestrians, because it is the closest connection between teh downtown neighborhoods of Stevens Square and Loring Park with the downtown skyway system.
- This element of the building - its function as a connection between the downtown and neighborhoods could be strenthened greatly by extending the Convention Center's access to the southside of the complex. Public access is only available on the north / east / west sides of the building - the downtown neighborhoods face the southside of the building. Opening an entrance at the back of the building could go a far way to making the downtown even more accessible to near-downtown residents.
Generally, in terms of design, I feel the building is built with the visitor in mind more than than the resident. This is probably to be expected.
However, it's fun to explore around the building, as the space is far more dynamic than I originally thought. I'll continue to add photos of the convention center over time.
Filed under Phototour, Photography, Architecture with 4 Comments
|4 Responses to “Phototour: Minneapolis Convention Center”
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October 17th, 2006 at 7:09 am
I have passed by the Convention Center a few times. I think your comments in generally hit the nail on the head. It has some great design elements, but like most Convention Centers it doesn't "fit" into the neighborhood. These centeres tend to be monolithic and self-contained. The same goes, for the most part, for all large indoor spaces (stadiums, etc.). I've often wondered if there's any way to make these spaces interact with the outside world any better.
One way would be to add more entries/exits. The drawback, however, with that technique is that convention center operators want to be able to securely control the flow of people in and out of the center itself.
What about street level retail exterior retail? There's no reason you couldn't allow for that: look at the Palmer Hilton in Chicago for a good example of that. They preserved the ground floor exterior of the building for retail use, and then carved out a huge indoor ballroom for the hotel.
–Steve (http://grossreport.blogspot.com)
October 17th, 2006 at 8:19 am
I think the major problems with convention centers is that they are such large horizontal buildings. One way of dealing with that would be to build taller so that they don't have such a huge footprint. Of course then you have the problems of how to hold a car show on the 10th floor. Both Hong Kong (http://www.hkcec.com/english/front/front.html) and Boston deal with this problem by putting their convention centers on their respective harbours.
October 22nd, 2006 at 5:15 pm
The easiest way to get cars to the 10th floor of a building is to follow this as an example:
Article: Seven Stories in Seven Seconds (NY Times)
"AFTER Kent M. Swig and his partners paid $418 million for the Sheffield — an occupied 50-story apartment building on West 57th Street in Manhattan — at the height of a soaring real estate market last year, he knew he had to do something special to add some fizz to the marketing campaign.
So, faster than you can say “condo plan amendment,” he has added seven stories to the building…
… Still, the 80 remaining tenants in the Sheffield, a brick postwar tower that was once home to 852 renters, were chagrined to discover a note posted near the elevators 10 days ago: henceforth, the floors would be renumbered, and the building would top out at the 57th floor, simply by skipping seven floor numbers.
“In accordance with the first amendment to the offering plan, please be advised that the building’s floor numbers will be redesignated,” the note read.
October 25th, 2006 at 10:27 am
In a recent issue of Metropolis (I think!) there was an item about an apartment building in which you park your car on your balcony.
"On your balcony!?" you gasp!
Yes, on your balcony. They've got some kind of super-awesome car elevator; you drive on to it and it takes you to your balcony. Then you drive on to your balcony. Cool, huh? I mean, assuming the engineering is safe and all, I'm very impressed. It certainly makes a building's facade look weird, though!
–Steve (http://grossreport.blogspot.com)