Saint Anthony Park : Development News

A twofold event dubbed “exp-Air-iment” offers participants the opportunity to see the neighborhood from a new perspective--literally.

The St. Anthony Park Community Council Pop-Up Shop is hosting an aerial photography “open lab” and separately, a workshop, from Aug. 1 to 5.

The pop-up shop, which temporarily fills an empty storefront space on University Avenue, is among the numerous creative initiatives to come out of Irrigate Arts. The initiative is funding all kinds of place-making projects along the Central Corridor light rail transit line.

Kristen Murray, a co-founder of the Starling Project, which is helping to program the pop-up shop, is leading “exp-Air-iment.”   

In the “open lab,” visitors will get a chance to try the special aerial photography rig in the shop and see the images that come from a custom-built 3D printer, which was designed by Will Janicke, a local maker.

The workshop takes it a step further; people will learn the basics to get started with aerial photography, which involves sending digital cameras into the air with balloons, she says.

Also over the coming week, Murray is doing aerial photography with the Teen Tech Crew at the Science Museum of Minnesota, where she previously led hands-on technology-based programs.

Recently, she worked with teens from the nearby Skyline Tower housing complex. “We took a couple of cameras, rigs, and a bunch of balloons over to Dunning Field and captured some great shots,” she says, adding that they also suspended cameras from kites.  

The playing field’s wide-open spaces worked well for the balloons, which hovered overhead about 50 feet high. The group also got views of Marshall Avenue, Central High School, the St. Anthony Park community garden along with other local landmarks--and the photographers themselves.

“I enjoy seeing broad views where you can recognize the place easily, as well as more accidental angles and perspectives that catch interesting patterns,” she says.

The images show that “The railyard is just an impressive site--amazing that so much activity happens in a place that is smack-dab in the middle of the city but yet mostly out-of-mind and out-of-sight,” the website reads.  

The images can be seen on the website and hanging in the pop-up shop this week.

Source: Kristen Murray, Co-founder, Starling Project
Writer: Anna Pratt

In a unique partnership with the Starling Project, the St. Anthony Park Community Council (SAPCC) is temporarily reimagining a vacant storefront space on University Avenue in St. Paul.

The Starling Project facilitates such “meanwhile uses” of empty spaces along the avenue’s portion of the Central Corridor light rail transit line, according to project materials.

Even though the bulk of the construction here has wrapped up, shoppers are still avoiding the area, according to Amy Sparks, who heads SAPCC.

To take advantage of the space, SAPCC and Starling are on the lookout for entrepreneurs, artists, and other creative types to fill the place.

Tenants will fill the 1,200-square-foot pop-up shop for anywhere from one to four weeks.

Renters should engage the public in some way, such as through a one-time event, open studio hours, or an interesting window display, according to a prepared statement about the project.

So far, the space has a few takers, including Irrigate Arts, which is leading the charge on numerous artist-led placemaking projects along the light rail line. Irrigate will have an exhibit in the space that documents these efforts.

Sky View, which is an aerial photo workshop and gallery, will also have a presence there.

Last month, an art show called Art du Nord occupied the former frame shop.  

Ultimately, the neighborhood group sees the rotating uses as a way to bring life to the avenue, according to Sparks. “We want to see University Avenue thrive and help keep businesses going.”     

It’s also a creative way to find a permanent tenant for the space.

More broadly, the project calls attention to the neighborhood’s Creative Enterprise Zone, which is an in-progress arts district-like designation. It's all about strengthening the local creative community, she explains.

Sparks hopes these types of events will “build up awareness of the area, so people start to recognize it as a creative area and want to locate here and do business here.”

As such, the group is trying “to get the right developments in,” and keep office space affordable. “It makes the Creative Enterprise Zone more real and tangible,” she says.

Source: Amy Sparks, executive director, SAPCC
Writer: Anna Pratt

This past winter, over 200 artists trained to do collaborative public art projects as a part of Irrigate.

It's a creative placemaking initiative for the coming Central Corridor light rail transit line. 
 
The workshops have seen more than double the level of participation that was anticipated for their first year by Springboard for the Arts, which is administering the initiative, according to Laura Zabel, who leads the organization.
 
“It’s a demonstration of the demand and interest in artists engaging the community,” she says, adding that emerging and established artists from a wide variety of disciplines have gotten involved.
 
Once artists go through the training, they can apply for grant money to do collaborative projects along the Central Corridor. Already, a number of mural projects have come out of the project, along with a concert series and more. “We’re really starting to feel the momentum,” she says.
 
For example, Leonardo’s Basement in Minneapolis is working with the Avalon School in St. Paul to create something it’s calling “sculptural mobile units,” which will travel to various events. 
 
A new business at Frogtown Square in St. Paul, which isn’t ready to go public yet, worked with Irrigate to organize a workshop called, “Make it Mysterious.” Artists designed temporary murals for the space. It led to “really cool visual pieces that animate that corner,” and the business is building on it, says Zabel. 
 
The various art events draw people to the corridor, which is especially important as construction is ramping up again, she says.
 
Irrigate is open to suggestions; on its website, it has a map where people can identify spots where art is needed. “I’ve seen people saying, here’s this ugly wall or huge dead tree, or available green space,” she says. “People know that artists think of all those things as opportunities.”
 
Source: Laura Zabel, Executive Director, Springboard for the Arts
Writer: Anna Pratt

Minneapolis' Colossal Café, a popular stop for breakfast and breads, opened a larger second location in St. Paul’s St. Anthony Park neighborhood late last year.

There weren’t any restaurant spaces available in the area when Colossal was scouting out locations, so it went for a 2,200-square-foot space that had housed a doctor’s office for over 40 years, according to Colossal’s co-owner, John Tinucci.  

Within the same building, there’s also a salon, an eye doctor, an architectural office, and more.

The $400,000 project involved gutting the place and bringing in all new mechanical systems. “We really chose the neighborhood,” he says, adding, “We could’ve done a build-out elsewhere for a lot less money.”

Inside, Colossal has a modern café feel, with glass block windows, tall ceilings that are partially exposed, a multi-colored floor made out of sustainable materials, and an open kitchen. “Our place in Minneapolis is very open by necessity and that’s something that we wanted to carry through again,” he says.

The place is furnished with a mix of tables, including some that were crafted by Big Wood Timber Frames Inc. out of reclaimed wood from the old Pedro Luggage store in downtown St. Paul. “They lead to a lot of good conversations,” he says. “It’s another piece of St. Paul.”   

He was drawn to the neighborhood that’s sandwiched between Luther Seminary and the University of Minnesota because “People here take ownership.”

“They support local businesses,” he says, adding that many people can be seen out and about. The neighborhood has a "mini-downtown" feel, with plenty of shops. “You wouldn’t have to leave the area if you didn’t want to.”
 
With food that’s made from scratch using many local products, and that tries to be as sustainable as possible, “This is the type of operation that fits in here so well.”

In the future, the restaurant might add nighttime hours and beer and wine, he says.

Source: John Tinucci, co-owner, Colossal Café
Writer: Anna Pratt

Through a master planning process that it recently wrapped up, the Hampden Park Coop in St. Paul has identified short- and long-term remodeling priorities for the vintage building that it owns.

Coop member Paul Ormseth, an architect who is leading the process, says that several years ago the store expanded into a corner space in the building “with an eye to doing some planning about how to manage it into the future.”

Right now, the coop rents out part of the second-floor space to Oak Floor Dance Association, and there’s potential for more tenants.

“With a large space upstairs, the building can serve the community,” perhaps by accommodating public gatherings or various educational uses.

It’s something that any remodeling project should strengthen, Ormseth says.

Additionally, the building is well positioned to take advantage of traffic from the coming Central Corridor light rail transit line and right-of-way improvements planned for Raymond Avenue, he says.

In general “We want to do near-term remodeling that makes sense in a longer vision for the building,” and which will probably happen in a couple of phases.

For starters, the store needs more office and storage space.

The checkout stand could also be revamped, while the coop is also hoping to make the building more energy-efficient.  

For example, “We’re looking at bringing more daylight into the store to improve the feel of the store and reduce the need for lighting,” he says.  

Enhancing accessibility is another goal.

Whatever changes get made will be sensitive to the building's historic character. 

It goes to show, adds Ormseth, that “An old building is valuable because it can be adapted and it strengthens the community by retaining some existing historic fabric.”

At this early stage, the budget for the remodeling projects is still debatable. “The coop has been an asset for the neighborhood for a long time,” he says. “In buying the building, the coop made a commitment to improving the store, as well as keeping the existing building intact.”


Source: Paul Ormseth, Hampden Park Coop member
Writer: Anna Pratt

A group of staff and faculty members from the University of Minnesota's College of Design got a chance to show off their local and global projects at the school's recent design outreach slam.  

Following five-minute presentations, the designers' colleagues at the college got to pick first- and second-place winners, who received $1,000 and $500, respectively, for professional development purposes, explains organizer Brad Hokanson, the associate dean for research and outreach at the school.  

In the mix was everything from sustainable design initiatives in rural Minnesota to rebuilding efforts in Haiti.

Landscape architect Rebecca Krinke was the audience's top pick for her public art project that includes a three-dimensional map of the Twin Cities; it shows places that represent joy and pain in individuals' lives, which audience members jumped in to help identify, Hokanson says.

The interactive map, he says, made for "deep conversations, engaging people with the process of their lives."

Jim Lutz, who came in second place, is bringing students to Haiti this spring. In collaboration with the American Red Cross, the small group will design a couple of grade schools, which they'll get up and running in an eight-week window. Students will prepare by taking some special courses at the university beforehand.  "It's a real immersion program," says Hokanson.   

Other presentations shed light on development and decay in East Africa's Zanzibar; good and bad inner city housing in the Twin Cities; and the efforts to digitize holdings at the school's Goldstein Museum of Design in St. Paul, among others.  

Part of the reason for doing the Nov. 12 slam, Hokanson says, was to highlight the wide-ranging work that the school is a part of, work that extends far beyond the campus. Insiders in the school often "only know what [they're] doing," he says. "This was a way for people to find out about what other people are doing."

Additionally, he says, their good work "shows the benefits of being here."

Source: Brad Hokanson, University of Minnesota College of Design, associate dean for research and outreach
Writer: Anna Pratt

At a century-old brick building in St. Paul's Mid-City area, lawn mower-makers have given way to CodeWeavers. And the engineers at the software firm that goes by that name will be joined this week by educators working for the Minnesota Literacy Council. With the two tenants, the building will be 60-62 percent leased.

The 18,000 square-foot factory/warehouse now known as The Foundry at Raymond is the 15th property near the crossroads of Raymond and University avenues to be renovated by Update Company, a family-owned development firm with more than three decades in the neighborhood. Partner Sandy Jacobs says Update currently owns and manages eight buildings in this commercial and industrial section of the St. Anthony Park neighborhood.

Jacobs remembers a less-vibrant era in the 1970s when her parents' home-based painting business began to evolve into Update. She figures the firm's Midtown Commons office conversion of a pair of buildings in 1990 was a turning point for the area. "That when things really started to gel," Jacobs says.

Now she can point prospective tenants toward numerous nearby amenities, including the Edge Coffee Shop, Hampden Park Co-op, Gremlin Theater, and Caf� Biaggio. CodeWeavers has found the location midway between downtown St. Paul and Minneapolis so convenient for employees to bike to work that they installed a shower.

A Central Corridor light-rail transit station will be under construction at Raymond and University next year, eventually increasing the development potential of surrounding land. The St. Paul Port Authority has scooped up a nearby former trucking property, Jacobs said.

Office workers aren't the only ones finding the once desolate area more appealing. Jacobs says a newly landscaped stormwater-runoff collection pond at the Foundry has attracted a recent eagle.

Source: Sandy Jacobs, Update Company
Writer: Chris Steller

If you take a walk in St. Paul, it's becoming more and more likely that you'll step on a poem.

The city's sidewalk poetry program is in its third year of stamping poems into sidewalk squares as part of regular maintenance work. Residents compete in an annual contest in which 10 are chosen to have their work set in concrete. Now there are 30 poems in 300 locations across the city. Calls come in from as far away as New Zealand to inquire about the program.

It's one of the projects that got its start through another St. Paul innovation: the artist-in-residence, a nontraditional approach to public art. Many public-art programs operate on the percent-for-art model, explains Christine Podas-Larson of the nonprofit Public Art Saint Paul. A capital project has already been designed and an artist is called in-- "usually at the end," she says--to add some art.

The artist-in-residence program in St. Paul stands that on its head. The artist gets embedded in the inner workings of City Hall. Not only the politics and administration but the day-to-day duties of all sorts of public servants.

The deal Public Art Saint Paul offered City Hall, she says, was this: We will pay for the position of artist-in-residence. You make room for the artist "at the big kids' table." (A $50,000 grant from the McKnight Foundation helped Public Art Saint Paul keep its end of the deal.)

That's how the sidewalk poetry program was born. Artist-in-residence Marcus Young visited the Sidewalk Division of the Public Works Department and asked "What do you do?" It turns out the division spends a half-million dollars annually replacing the equivalent of 10 miles of broken sidewalk squares. Young already had a concept of the city as a book and the sidewalks as pages. Here was a readymade way to turn that into reality.

"We take a tiny corner of what they're doing anyway," says Podas-Larson says. "It makes maintenance artful," she says.

Source: Christine Podas-Larson, Public Art Saint Paul
Writer: Chris Steller

All seems as it should be in front of the James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History. Bronze wolves stalk a bronze moose on the path to the front door, and above the door, an immense American bison is carved in relief on the limestone facade, along with the museum's name.

But behind that facade, the 70-year-old building on the University of Minnesota's Minneapolis campus is suffering from old age, according to museum spokesman Martin Moen. Gallery ceilings lower than the current industry standard make installation of many traveling exhibits difficult or impossible. The space for such exhibits is only 3,000 square feet, a bare minimum. Air conditioning in the 1960s-era addition is on its last legs;  the original 1940 building has none.

A solution--constructing a new building for the museum on the university's St. Paul campus--has been in the works for nearly 15 years. Fundraising for the $39.5 million building began in 2001. Some of the $10 million raised so far went toward design work and construction drawing for a new facility at the southwest corner of Larpenteur and Cleveland avenues.

But state funding for the shovel-ready project has twice fallen victim to Gov. Tim Pawlenty's veto pen, and last year the university decided to give the proposal a breather. The Board of Regents will decide this year whether to include the Bell again in the university's funding request next legislative session.

In the meantime, the state's only natural history museum continues drawing 60,000 visitors per year. On exhibit this summer are works by Francis Jacques, the Aitken, Minn.-born artist who painted dioramas for the Bell and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Part of the cost of the St. Paul museum will be the careful removal of some of Jacques' murals for re-installation in the new space.

Source: Martin Moen, Bell Museum
Writer: Chris Steller

Work is underway on building the Central Corridor light-rail transit line between Minneapolis and St. Paul. So how soon will construction start on the anticipated wave of transit-related development projects along the University Avenue route?

At the northwest corner of University and Hampden Avenue in St. Paul, the answer is: It's done. The Lyric at Carleton Place, a 170-unit apartment building, has seemed ahead of the curve, rising even as the lingering recession has kept other projects on the drawing boards.

The Lyric is a rental companion to the Carleton Artist Lofts, a renovated condominium building next door, both developed by Johnson Brothers Liquor Company, a major local distributor of wines and spirits. (Johnny's Lounge, a bar that formerly occupied the site, is commemorated inside the Lyric with a namesake gathering space.)

Yet the coming Central Corridor LRT line is not the main selling point for The Lyric, which is located between future stations at Raymond and Fairview avenues. Instead, The Lyric boasts artist-friendly amenities like a gallery, an amphitheater, and an outdoor movie-screening space.

The developer's effort to build a community at the Lyric extends beyond physical features. "The company has gone out of its way to incorporate social media" such as a Lyric-specific social-media site and an iTunes channel, says Christopher Lower of Sterling Cross Group, a public relations, marketing and web design firm working with property management company Dominium.

Lower says there's movement afoot to re-brand the Lyric's South St. Anthony neighborhood as "Mid-City" -- appropriate, considering the skyline view in either direction from the Lyric's rooftop deck.

Source: Christopher Lower, Sterling Cross Group
Writer: Chris Steller