| Follow Us: Facebook Twitter Youtube RSS Feed

Featured Stories

582 Articles | Page: | Show All
Tom Fisher

The Big Picture 1: A conversation on designing the future with U of M design dean Tom Fisher

Wednesday, February 16, 2011
The Twin Cities design community wields not just national, but international influence. The U of M is developing alliances between its design college and some unlikely partners as design expands from crafting objects to organizing human experience. The economic meltdown, the Katrina aftermath, and the BP oil spill could have been avoided if those in charge had thought like designers. These are some of the insights from Tom Fisher, Dean of the University of Minnesota's College of Design, in the first of our "Big Picture" interviews.
Jenni Undis, owner of Lunalux

Lunalux: Where fine printing is hip, funny, and fashionable

Jon Spayde Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Lunalux, Jenni Undis' hip printing shop and paper-goods boutique on Minneapolis' Loring Park, pioneered in the crafting of "indie" greeting cards--cleverly conceived fine-press alternatives to Hallmark. Some of the most design-savvy people and organizations in town have gone to Undis for their printing needs--and her retail shop is full of offbeat paper goods you won't find anywhere else.
Kimberly Nightingale of the St. Paul Almanac

Saint Paul Almanac publisher Kimberly Nightingale wants to change the way America tells its stories

Jon Spayde Wednesday, February 09, 2011
At first glance, The Saint Paul Almanac is a handy week-planner full of local information. Dig a little deeper and you discover founder/publisher Kimberly Nightingale's vision: a place where stories from every corner of the city, and every ethnic community, come together. But there's more: Nightingale sees the Almanac as a tool for transforming the way Americans learn about each other. And people around the country think she's on to something.
Maurice Blanks and John Christakos of Blu Dot

Dale Connelly, Resident Tourist: What local design firm is putting the "fun" in furniture? Blu Dot!

Dale Connelly Wednesday, February 09, 2011
With their Couchoid, their Blockoid, and a sofa bed called The One-Night Stand, the men behind Minneapolis' Blu Dot furniture line make it clear how much they like to tweak the solemn "celebrity designer" image as they craft affordable furniture that is way too cool to be trendy. Our Resident Tourist, Dale Connelly, gets the deets on a company that is as devoted to insouciance as it is to start-to-finish craftsmanship.
Johnny Northside

Johnny Northside and friends: North Minneapolis' best-known blogger has spawned his own blogosphere

Anna Pratt Wednesday, February 02, 2011
John Hoff, aka Johnny Northside, blogs about North Minneapolis with passion and personality. He believes the neighborhood is headed "someplace amazing," and he's helping it get there with stories about its pleasures and problems. And he's inspired others to join the cyber-conversation, co-creating one of the most vibrant civic blogospheres in town.
2011 Powderhorn Park Artsled Rally

Slide Show: There are odd things in the snow as art sleds take over Powderhorn Park

Bill Kelley Wednesday, February 02, 2011
On Sunday, January 30, the slopes of Powderhorn Park in South Minneapolis came alive with some very strange sleds indeed as the fourth annual Art Sled Rally slid, wobbled, and tumbled into history. Our own Bill Kelley was there to capture high points of this very out-of-the-ordinary winter afternoon.

Editor's Note: Welcome Jeremy Stratton, our new Innovation and Jobs editor

Jon Spayde Wednesday, February 02, 2011
Jeremy Stratton is a veteran Twin Cities journalist who's written about business, development, sustainable design, local history, education, travel, civic and economic issues, and many other topics for a wide range of Twin Cities publications. We're lucky to have him as our new Innovation and Jobs editor, beginning with this issue.
Egg Plant exterior

Saint Paul's Egg/Plant Urban Farm Supply: a hip shop for the neo-rural renaissance

Eizabeth Millard Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Working in a garden center, Audrey Matson noticed something: customers were bypassing the ornamental trees and shrubs and going for vegetable-garden, canning, and composting supplies. A combination of recession, environmental awareness, fears about food safety, and desire to learn hallowed hands-on homemaking skills was creating a generation of  neo-agriculturalists--most of whom were savvy young urbanites. So despite the economic downturn, the time was right for a farm store in the city--one that specializes in out-of-the-way and hard-to-find supplies.
Small Kindness

VideoLine: Pull the lever, turn the wheel--Interactive art on the Hiawatha Line

Kevin Obsatz Wednesday, January 26, 2011
When you're waiting for the Hiawatha light-rail train, chances are that somewhere in the station are one or two of the little kiosks created by Brooklyn-based artist Janet Zweig. Turn a wheel, pull a lever, and you'll hear a story about old days in Saint Paul, see a Twin Cities comic perform, discover a singer. More than 100 local performing artists contributed to Zweig's project, dubbed Small Kindnesses, Weather Permitting. The Line managing editor Jon Spayde pulls a few levers to show you how they work.
St. Anthony Falls Lab

Dale Connelly, Resident Tourist: Saint Anthony Falls Lab, where water meets the future

Dale Connelly Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Our Resident Tourist takes a tour of a boxcar-shaped building on the Minneapolis riverfront where, even in winter, scientists use inflowing water from the Mississippi to model all kinds of interactions between land and water. Scientific esoterica? Not really. The scientists at the Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory want to help Louisiana rebuild its delta. They want to understand the algae blooms that create fish-killing "dead zones" in the Gulf of Mexico. And with new federal support, they're turning their expertise toward the study of wind power, biofuels, and "hydrokinetics"--nothing less than the discovery of "new ways to power our civilization."
Banners Iidentifying the cultural corridor

American Indian Cultural Corridor: New art, new enterprise on Franklin Avenue

Dan Heilman Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Franklin Avenue east of Hiawatha in Minneapolis used to be best known for bars and blight. Today, though, the area is blooming with Native enterprise as an American Indian Cultural Corridor takes shape. Culture and art are major drivers of the neighborhood's renaissance--an art gallery is one of the anchors, and there are new tribal and company offices and apartments too--and plans call for a brand-new mixed-use building and a Native-owned hotel. The biggest change, though, is a new sense of cohesion and pride at street level.
Jay & John @ Jack's

The Commons: Minneapolis author Jay Walljasper on seeking the common good beyond left and right

Jon Spayde Wednesday, January 12, 2011
The commons is a concept that you may be hearing a lot more about in the coming months and years. According to urbanist and journalist Jay Walljasper, who's just published a new book on the subject, the commons is everything we share--from public parks to ideas, urban gathering spaces to the internet, jokes and games to the oceans. And "commons-based solutions" to our political and social problems look past the I-me-mine of the privatized perspective toward the common good, in everything from small neighborhood improvements to social policy. Walljasper sees commons-based thinking as a way past many of our current left-right dilemmas--and he thinks the Twin Cities have a head start in that direction.
Figure Skater Downtown St. Paul

A new poll showcases the things we love about our towns--but can we keep them?

Holly Dolezalek Wednesday, January 12, 2011
A survey by the Knight Foundation and Gallup found that cities do better economically when the people in them want to stay in them.It also found that Twin Citians are held here by many things, including our arts and cultural amenities, our parks and recreational advantages, and our improving transit picture. With a new year has come a new political climate, and fiscal challenges continue at all levels of government. What does this mean for our likelihood of holding on to the things that keep people loving the Cities? Holly Dolezalek asked some experts.
Eco Deep Haus Exterior

EcoDeep and ICON Solar: Two elegant experimental houses that are about as green as you can get

Camille LeFevre Wednesday, January 05, 2011
While many of us do our best to retrofit our houses to be more sustainable--adding insulation, putting in low-flow toilets, installing a solar panel on the roof--some Twin Cities architects and designers are going all-the-way green with rehabs and new house designs that are radically--and even experimentally--devoted to environmental responsibility. Two of the most prominent locally are the EcoDEEP Haus in Saint Paul, an environmentally concerned architect's refitting of his own house, and the University of Minnesota's ICON Solar House, the result of the input of some 150 design students. And these sensible, responsible houses also happen to be way cool to look at and live in.
The Walker's Out There Series 1

Editor's Pick: The Walker kicks off this year's Out There performance series with Euro-puppetry

Wednesday, January 05, 2011
We've learned to count on the Walker Art Center to bring some of the freshest, edgiest performance troupes in the world to the Twin Cities, from venerable modern masters like choreographer Merce Cunningham and Japanese  dance legend Kazuo Ohno to young companies that fuse theater, dance, video, and installation art in unpredictable ways. Tomorrow night (January 6), the WAC inaugurates its 2011 Out There series, an annual showcase for eclectic, genre-bending and -blending stage performance, with Show Your Face!, a decidedly grown-up puppet drama.
582 Articles | Page: | Show All
Signup for Email Alerts
Contact Us | Privacy Policy | Have a Tip? | About The Line | About The Line | The Line Links | Terms of Use | RSS