Todd Melby's blog
Soranno-designed synagogue opens
by Todd Melby, 8/15/08 • After conducting services in a former Mormon meeting house for decades, the congregation of B'nai Israel Synagogue in Rochester, Minnesota recently moved into a new building designed by architect Joan Sorrano of HGA Architects.
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Moorish Revival gem in disrepair
by Todd Melby, August 12, 2008 • Preservationists are fretting over the fate of the Bardwell-Ferrant House, a Moorish Revival house located at 2500 Portland Avenue South in Minneapolis. Two years ago, the 1883 house sold for $385,000 (minus about $7,700 in owner upgrades). Today, Countrywide Mortgage is trying to unload the foreclosed property for $229,900.
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MORE » Moorish Revival gem in disrepair
Homes by architects
by Todd Melby, 8/1/08 • Tickets go on sale today for AIA Minnesota's Homes by Architects, a self-guided tour of 25-plus homes, scheduled for Sept. 20-21. All the residences on the tour were designed by architects, including Dale Mulfinger, Charles Stinson, David Salmela, Jean Rehkamp Larson, Geoffrey Warner, James McNeal and others.
The house in the photograph is located at 20505 Linden Road in Deephaven and was designed by David Salmela of Duluth.
The house in the photograph is located at 20505 Linden Road in Deephaven and was designed by David Salmela of Duluth.
Who'll stop the rain?
by Todd Melby, 7/29/08 • As rain continued to seep into historic structures at Fort Snelling, the cost of revitalizing those buildings has risen from $65 million to $80 million in just two years, according to preservationist Chuck Liddy of Miller Dunwiddie Architecture in an article in Finance and Commerce.
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Solutions for the Other 90%
by Todd Melby, 7/27/08 • If you haven't spent time with Design for the Other 90%, the Walker Art Center exhibit on finding low-cost designs to help the world's poor, Thursday, July 31 is the day to get over there. At 7 p.m., the museum and Solutions Twin Cities are sponsoring "an evening of rapid-fire, media-rich presentations by Twin Cities designers working to bring sustainable solutions to the 90 percent of the world's population that has little or no access to ... water and energy." Yikes!MORE »
Red Square in Northeast
by Todd Melby, 7/23/08 • The world's most famous Red Square is in Moscow. Minneapolis' Red Square won't change that, but it could be pretty cool anyway. Construction on the solar-paneled commercial building, located at 1401 Central Avenue Northeast, is scheduled to begin soon. Designed by Locus Architecture, the building features many sustainable — or green — features, including "super insulation ... heat recovery ventilation, radiant heating ... [and] operable thermal doors," according to a City of Minneapolis document.
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Foshay Tower party
by Todd Melby, 6/12/08 • Back in the 1980s, I worked at the Foshay Tower as a security guard. I was in college and often pulled the late shift, 11 p.m.-7 a.m. I remember sneaking into the wood-paneled penthouse suite once occupied by Wilbur Foshay, the businessman who built the obelisk skyscraper in 1929. Although I was the only one in the building at the time, I felt like I had to keep the lights off because I wasn't supposed to be in there.MORE » City Hall roof goes green
Where we live
by Todd Melby, 5/29/08 • An essay I wrote last year for mnartists.org has been reprinted by 10,000 Arts, a quarterly co-production of mnartists and Rake magazine.
Here's the beginning of the essay: "I've been living in the same city for a long time. Maybe that's why I crave the unusual. I abhor cookie-cutter architecture, which is just as prevalent in urban areas as in cul-de-sac suburbia. How many three-story brick condos with railed terraces have you seen constructed in recent years?
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