Ivy Tower

jamie: 30th May 2006 - 21:48 GMT

it would be kinda cool to live in. the same way it'd be cool to live in a lighthouse or an old windmill. only on a larger scale.

elaine: 31st May 2006 - 07:27 GMT

the plans look like they are going to dwarf the tower. shame on them.

Tyfoid Kid: 1st Jun 2006 - 14:50 GMT

I did a little digging (thank you U of M libraries) and found some more stuff on The Ivy (actually probably more then you'd want to know:)

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From an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune Dec 8 2001

The Ivy Tower has survived large and small fires, an owner who wanted to tear it down, serious and harebrained development schemes and gang members who climbed past boarded windows on the lower floors to get inside. But after a decade as a vacant eyesore, the little building's time may have come.

On Friday, the Minneapolis City Council is expected to approve a redevelopment agreement with Jeffrey Laux and Gary Benson, who plan to surround the pebbly-faced downtown landmark with 240,000 square feet of new office and special-event space.

The construction would generate sufficient new tax revenue for the city to subsidize renovation of the Ivy Tower, the city's only ziggurat-style structure, built in 1930 as part of a full-block plan that was never completed. (The Middle Eastern influence seen in the Moorish arches and stepped shape was popular in the Art Deco era of the 1920s and '30s.)

A motley history

The little tower originally was the administration building for the Second Church of Christ Scientist, which proposed a full-block development with four ziggurat towers connected to a central dome.

After the church sold it in 1965, the building housed small-office tenants and started going downhill. The city designated it historic in 1986. In 1994, owner Donald Babinsky applied to tear it down. The Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission and the city refused. Babinsky threatened to sue, and the building sat vacant for years. Water damage since has melted everything inside except the durable concrete structure.

David Kaiser, a Minneapolis real-estate professional, bought an option in the late 1990s and tried to turn the place into a "good-old-boys" cigar club, said architect Robert Brantingham, who has watched over the building from his office a block away.

When Kaiser's option was about to expire in August 2000, Brantingham contacted Laux, who in the 1980s had worked with Benson on the renovation of the Lumber Exchange building on Hennepin Avenue downtown. Laux and Benson decided over a weekend to buy the tower.
The officially historic 50-by-55-foot building sports just 16,000 square feet, so its renovation has been challenging, to say the least.

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Minneapolis has a rep for tearing down buildings for no real reason (fuck historical or unique, it's in the way) so the fact that this guy survived all that it has to be be part of something else is pretty amazing.

elaine: 1st Jun 2006 - 18:32 GMT

it looks brick built, is it? i believe brick buildings can only get so tall before something drastic happens. it looks knitted. and i agree that it has a certain mojo just for surviving, as you can see it is already dwarfed by its surroundings, let alone when they build around it.
will you keep us updated with new pics when they start?

Tyfoid Kid: 2nd Jun 2006 - 15:59 GMT

The article talks about a concrete structure inside. The surface isn't brick. It almost looks like some kind of stucco. I stopped by on the way to work and got as close as I dared (cranes and fences and construction debris Oh My)

Jon: 2nd Jun 2006 - 17:26 GMT

Minneapolis approves plan for Ivy Tower site
Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal - October 8, 2004
by Scott D. Smith
Staff reporter

The Minneapolis City Council approved a revised plan for a hotel and housing at the Ivy Tower site in downtown Minneapolis Friday.

Real estate investors and owners of the Ivy Tower, Jeffrey Laux and Gary Benson, had a request before the city council to change a development agreement approved in 2001.
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Under the previous agreement, the Minneapolis developers planned to build a 235,000 square foot office building next to the historic Ivy Tower building. Since then, they've changed their plans in response to a glut of office space in downtown Minneapolis. Now, instead of offices, the $72 million project includes a 131-room hotel and 89 units of housing.

The Ivy Tower proposal includes a request for $8.4 million of tax increment financing (TIF), whereas the old proposal was approved for $9.5 million of TIF financing.

The Business Journal first broke the news of the project revision in May.

Tyfoid Kid: 22nd May 2007 - 20:32 GMT

The new building that will "wrap" around the Ivy is nearing completion. These were taken about 2 weeks ago.

I guess I'm not sure what I think. It sure seems to get lost in its new neighbor.

Tim Hoekstra: 26th Jun 2007 - 21:23 GMT

It looks awesome. I hope the inside of the old building is as impressive as the new building next to it. I hope some attempts to retain its historical nature were kept.--

Robert Moss: 30th Oct 2007 - 04:57 GMT

I hear that it's going to be turned into a hotel to open in February. They're going to have a nice restaurant inside as well. I'm just glad that they're allowing for some history to come to Minneapolis as far as architecture goes. I really think it's a shame that this city didn't do more to preserve more of its historic sites.

mike: 8th Feb 2008 - 05:10 GMT

elaine: is that the same as pebbledash?

i think pebbledash is applied to a surface just like stucco. i think this is an aggregate concrete that is structural.

jon: 22nd May 2008 - 00:42 GMT

I had heard this building was a continual-pour concrete structure, ...maybe the tallest of the kind at the time???

Tyfoid Kid: 10th Jul 2008 - 15:58 GMT

So the hotel is done.
This is what it looks like today.

David Strang: 13th Jul 2008 - 02:48 GMT

I've always been fascinated by this little funky building, and am delighted that it has been saved. New construction surrounding the building was inevitable and a necessary aspect of saving this little tower. My only complaint is that I wish the architects had used a more harmonious color for the new construction - if nothing else, perhaps just a reflective glass for the exterior. I guess we can't have everthing, and I wish the Ivy Tower well.