Agreed. Like most American cities, Minneapolis went through a down period of demolition, decline and auto oriented development after WWII. When the return to proper urban design began around 15 years ago it was nice to see but it didn't amount to much at first. But now enough midrises have accumulated that they are profoundly reshaping the fabric of certain neighborhoods. Most have been built on vacant lots or the sites of crappy, suburban style one story post war buildings. Some of these neighborhoods, like Uptown, Dinkytown and greater Downtown only need one or two more cycles of development to fill in the rest of those types of sites. Hopefully at that point it will continue into the adjacent areas.
In the US we are in the habit of thinking about good urbanism and pre war fabric as being synonymous, but it is starting to look like the era from 1945 to 2000 wasn't the end of good urbanism for American cities but a donut hole. If you are old enough to remember how cities were in that era, this is exciting to watch.
Last edited by Chef; Sep 30, 2014 at 8:31 PM.
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