Proposed 29-story tower.
View of OL Lourdes.
Save Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Minneapolis.
I wrote about this a few days ago here. The story I'm linking to today broke on February 11 of this year - ironically the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes. My blog post was a little late...
How far have plans proceeded? I'm not sure as of this writing. One news source gave the impression the concern regarding Our Lady of Lourdes church was more or less limited to potential "shadowing and blocked sight-lines in the neighborhood". The original StarTrib article did say that, but it also quoted parish spokesman Dale Herron concern: “We have a strong desire not to see this go forward in its present form. We’re not against development on the site, but we simply do not think this fits the needs of the neighborhood.”
The original article apparently missed the more pressing concern, the real problem, as it were. Perhaps the architectural renderings shown above may help to identify the 'danger'. I'm not sure the concern about the 'view' is all that major. The real problem seems to be the threat to the structural stability of the landmark church edifice, which has already required stabilizers due to past construction projects. A large, 29-story tower, including underground parking facilities, requires a great deal of excavation and foundation work. Which means a whole lot of shaking going on... like an earthquake maybe?
There is a Facebook site to save the nightclub on the corner - for that, go here. Save Nye's save Our Lady of Lourdes? Anyway, I'm not aware of any save ol of lourdes site but there is a parish Facebook site here. Parish website here.
In the meantime - pray.
Contact Minneapolis City Councilman for Ward 3 here:
Jacob Frey
350 S. 5th St., Room 307
Minneapolis, MN 55415
612-673-2203
jacob.frey@minneapolismn.gov
Go here to see complete plans, including aerial view of the footprint for the proposed tower - you will understand the concerns. Or click:
Church tower in background.
I spent a lot of time eating and drinking at Nye's when I moved back in about 1977. It was a big cop hangout and I was dating one.
ReplyDeleteProbably should have spent that time at Our Lady of Lourdes.
I was only at Nye's once.
DeleteIf excavation is the fear, then you should not have any because the shoring engineering on a project of this scale should be very good.
ReplyDeleteThat's good to know - I have a feeling maintaining it's dominance - king of the hill - may be more of a major concern than I thought.
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