(rshsdepot) Minneapolis, MN Milwaukee Rd Depot

["Jim Dent" <james.dent_@_itochu.com>]

The Minneapolis Star Tribune...

Commentary: Depot is worthy engine for riverfront growth
Linda Mack
Star Tribune
Tuesday, July 10, 2001

Photos:
1 - The Milwaukee Depot, with the new Marriott Hotel on the left, is at the
corner of Washington and Third Avenues in downtown Minneapolis.
2 - Carrying out the railroad theme, this "locomotive" is the main feature
of the water park.
3 - Work continues on the main lobby and waiting room of the old depot.
4 - The entrance to the five-story Courtyard by Marriott is set back,
letting the depot dominate along 3rd Avenue.

Take one rusting, 600-foot-long train shed and turn it into an ice rink.
Mold a partially burned, pigeon-filled depot into an elegant event space
with Victorian-style lodging suites. Add two hotels nearby and -- voila! --
there's new life on the riverfront.

Now that every surface of the Milwaukee Road Depot is receiving its final
spit and polish, that recipe for redeveloping it and its surrounding two
blocks may look easy. But it wasn't. Its completion is a minor miracle.

For years after the last train chugged out of the Minneapolis station in
1971, the depot and train shed defied reuse. In 1998 city development
officials persuaded St. Paul-based CSM Corp. to consider the parcel for a
downtown hotel.

Today, a 227-room Courtyard by Marriott officially opens next door to the
depot.

A 130-room Residence Inn and its train-themed water park opened in March.
The crown jewel of the project -- the renewed 1898 Renaissance Revival depot
itself -- will open in a couple of weeks.

The $60 million complex, assisted by $12 million in public money, works in
more ways than one.

As a development, it found the right formula. The two hotels provide the
economic engine to power the depot's renovation -- and allow the historic
buildings to be used in appealing and sympathetic ways. And though ice
skating doesn't pay for the train shed's rehabilitation, which cost about $8
million, it's a charming use.

The design -- a collaboration of the Minneapolis firms of Shea Architects
and Elness, Swenson, Graham -- is equally successful. The architects have
made the most of historic-preservation guidelines, which dictate a sensitive
approach.
In the depot, the Great Hall and meeting rooms have been treated lightly,
letting the original architecture speak clearly. Even when the depot was
still open, painting and remodeling had made these once-grand rooms
monochromatic. Now the brick-and-stone walls have been stripped and cleaned,
revealing a muted color scheme of cream and buff. Skylights have been
replaced. Delicate stenciling and reproduction lights have been added. And
the original Tennessee marble floor gleams again.
The mezzanines that wrap around the soaring Great Hall were particularly
tricky to reuse. Now they seem perfectly configured, with inside hallways
overlooking the soaring great hall and the 23 boutique suites -- with unique
layouts -- enjoying the large outside windows. (One of the suites, renting
for $999 a night, features a kitchen, fireplace and other amenities.)
The former loading area, another challenging space, has skylights that make
it a perfect winter garden, which can be a reception area for events in the
Great Hall or a space for hotel guests to eat breakfast and watch the
skaters.

Fitting right in

The new architecture demonstrates a light hand as well. The entrance to the
five-story Courtyard by Marriott is set back, letting the depot dominate
along 3rd Avenue. It also leaves breathing room for the pioneering Dunn
Bros. coffee shop in the renovated freight house. The hotel's simple steel
canopy recalls the train shed's trusses without getting cute. A cast-stone
base reflects the line of the depot's rusticated stone base, and the upper
floors of patterned brick are sympathetic without mimicking the depot. It's
a far cry from the usual, suburban-style Courtyard.

Farther away, along S. 2nd Street, the Residence Inn establishes its own
distinct but sympathetic identity. Five colors of brick and periodic
setbacks break up the almost block-long facade. The darkest brick and a
dark-green arched canopy mark the entry. Black-iron balconies and a variety
of windows add more interest, but a symmetry and order create a harmonious
whole.

The arrangement of the two hotels on the perimeter of the two blocks creates
an outdoor courtyard that keeps the cars to the interior of the site and,
when landscaping is done, will likely be an inviting outdoor space.

A downtown draw

All stops are pulled for the water park, where Disney meets Camp Snoopy. A
brightly colored train spouts water every 15 minutes, ensuring that even
parents watching kids in the pool get a little wet.

But what the heck -- the more families who come downtown for the weekend
rather than go to the Mall of America, the better. The ice rink has regular
public hours. And with hotel amenities such as the water park sometimes
available to the public there's plenty to do.

And in five years there may be plenty more -- the Minnesota Historical
Society's Mill City Museum and the new Guthrie Theater complex on S. West
River Parkway; new housing and retail on now-empty blocks; and the MacPhail
Center for the Arts just east of the depot complex.

The depot was always a crucial piece of this riverfront puzzle. Vacant and
rotting, it pulled the area down. Now burnished and vibrant, it raises the
riverfront ante.

- -- Linda Mack

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