Lofts, St. Paul

We moved house this month. We didn't move far, less than one mile but in doing so we crossed over Hwy 280 which marks the Minneapolis/St.Paul border. Confused? We've migrated to a new city but barely broke a sweat in the process. Nice.

St. Paul has a reputation for being boring, too quiet, desolate, pointless... All of these accusations are true but I can't complain about the quality and quantity of early 20th century architecture that I now must explore and learn about. Huge brick warehouses are dotted all around the city, some only a block or two from our new house. Built as department stores, for storage of goods and maybe some light manufacturing, their exterior aesthetics played little or no part in the commercial success or failure of the enterprises within. Customers did not need to be drawn in by fancy glasswork or twisted metal facades or even neon signs which were just appearing at that time. A plain, rectangular brick box with no pretense served its purpose just fine. Kind of interesting how these days it is usually a logo (LINK) that draws in the consuming public. The building type or style is still secondary to what's inside but why has the architecture become so dog ugly, unimaginative, hasty and simply disposable such that nobody will put up a fight when the bulldozers come to knock down a structure that never had any big ambition to make itself a part of the community and a part of peoples lives? I suspect the answer is $.

I took these (LINK) photos on Saturday. You'll note from the photographs that some serious internal construction is under way. These warehouse buildings will not be imploded to make way for crap that none of us need but instead are being respectfully renovated so that they can be rented out as loft space for artists. More info here on the future development (LINK). It's really encouraging so see a move like this being made by the city. They could have let various big name franchise restaurants and coffee shops move in and then squeeze them for more rent and taxes than they will ever get from the artist lofts development. Somebody or maybe a simple majority in the city planning authority put the brakes on greed and chose something better. Good for them. This happens a lot here and I love it.