I'm glad Dorie raised this issue about the Nicollet Hotel Block...the block north of the new Central Library. The city now owns it and it strikes me that this can and needs to be a landmark development....it's where three of our great streets meet...Hennepin, Nicollet and Washington....it's where the river meets the central business district.....it's where the Warehouse District meets downtown....and it's at the beginning of the proposed Nicollet Mall shuttle. The city originally acquired this as a terminal site for the Nicollet Mall shuttle...but we want it to be more exciting than that...It's a great place for housing. With the shuttle on the main floor, a resident could have the unique ability to come down the elevator and either walk across the street by skyway to the library, get onto a shuttle that takes them to LRT, walk across the street to a park, or a few more blocks to the river. It's potentially a great project that links transit and housing...and the one thing I have to say we don't want to do is anything mediocre. The newsletter Dorie referred to said it would be a shame to have it be a boring glass bus station. That's not going to happen...If we don't get some really interesting bids we aren't going to do anything....We will hold the block until something really great comes along...it's too good a block to waste on something mediocre. So spread the word if you know anyone who wants to create a landmark project. R.T. Rybak REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait.
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