Archives

1. City of Minneapolis Public Service Building

   A design collaboration between Henning Larsen and MSR Design, the new City of Minneapolis Public Service Building provides Minneapolis citizens with a customer-centric experience as the new public service face for the city. Situated next to City Hall, the building helps create a contemporary workplace for city business that reflects the diversity of Minneapolis. It introduces a wholly reimagined public service model. The design features innovative collaborative workspaces, integrated sustainability, and access to daylight as a contributor to a healthy work environment. It is truly a building for everybody. The design invites the public into the building by placing public functions towards Government Plaza. Taking inspiration from the city’s abundant parks and lakes, the design incorporates open community space at street level, gesturing towards City Hall and activating the adjacent plaza. The new building’s main entrance is oriented to minimize wind exposure, with its massing and façade oriented to optimize daylight.

   MSR Design served as architect of record for the project, with design architect Henning Larsen.

    

2. Missoula Public Library

   The new building houses four other community organizations (MCAT, Families First Learning Lab, SpectrUM Discovery Area, and the University of Montana Living Lab) to create a library, museum, and science and community center that blends Missoula’s rich heritage with world-class innovations all under one roof. The design process involved an intensive week-long visioning session with leadership from the library and partner organizations to establish project goals and guiding principles. The main floor offers a marketplace with a cafe, retail store, new library materials, and the audiovisual collection; a makerspace; MCAT’s high tech production studio, equipment check-out services, and sound booths; a teens’ area; and the University of Montana Living Lab. Focused on children, families, and play, the second floor houses the Hank and Nancy Harrington Children’s Library, Families First Learning Lab, SpectrUM Disovery Area, and a mix of collaborative learning spaces shared by the partner organizations. The third floor includes a demonstration kitchen, reference services, fiction and nonfiction collections, a business center, and genealogy center. The top floor provides spaces for public engagement and gathering and access to an exterior patio.

   MSR Design served as design architect and interior designer, and A&E Design was the architect of record.

    

    

3. Minnesota Landscape Arboretum Bee Discovery Center

   The health of pollinators is in danger from pesticide use, lack of forage, destruction of nest habitats, and colony collapse disorder. Serving as the outreach arm of the University of Minnesota’s Bee and Pollinator Research Lab, this new center gives next generations an opportunity to learn about the intricate and essential world of pollinators. Located on the Red Barn Farm site at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, the center features exhibit space for telling the story of honey bees, Monarch butterflies, and other pollinators, while inviting visitors of all ages to sense the world from the vantage point of the small pollinators. A learning lab provides space for interpretation and educational activities. The design connects interior program spaces to an outdoor environment that features demonstration pollinator gardens and bee hives.

4. RIDC Mill 19

   Mill 19 is a living emblem of Pittsburgh’s transformation from its industrial steel-making past to a future of sustainable advanced manufacturing. In a bold approach to adaptive reuse, the design viscerally interweaves new space for the city’s robotics industry within the industrial ruins of a decommissioned steel rolling mill. A post-industrial promenade welcomes the public through a linked series of compelling exterior experiences framed between the monumental 1,360 foot-long existing steel superstructure and three multi-tenant tech buildings sited within. The Mill 19 project accomplishes impressive levels of experiential, sustainable performance and public access within the financial constraints of a speculative core and shell commercial development.

5. MSR Design 510 Marquette Studio

   Located in a large open space on the second floor of a 1925 office building, MSR Design’s new studio cultivates the firm’s design culture through spaces that support the myriad ways of making architecture and make the design process visible. The design arranges workstations around the perimeter near large windows that overlook the urban setting. Staff can choose from a mix of flexible spaces for individual focus or collaboration in a dynamic environment that promotes productivity and creativity. The juxtaposition of a solid black box inserted into the open, white perimeter areas defines and delineates the various zones. The project’s heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system includes enhanced air filtration, monitors, and controls for the health and well-being of staff and visitors. The project has achieved Living Building Challenge (LBC) Petal Certification for the materials, beauty, and equity petals.

    

6. Capitol Region Watershed District Office

   This adaptive reuse project involves the conversion of a supply garage from the 1940s into a new workplace and educational environment for Capitol Region Watershed District (CRWD), an environmental stewardship organization. The renewed building utilizes sustainable design building principles, including innovative stormwater management practices and energy efficiency measures to conserve natural resources, create a healthy workplace, and protect the Mississippi River and its native habitat.

   The office design promotes human health and well-being. The open and unified workplace fosters a culture of collaboration, communication, and partnerships. Flexible meeting spaces not only accommodate internal staff meetings, but also are available for community organizations to use. Providing maximum workplace choice and flexibility, the office features a mix of spaces that support staff socialization and informal meetings, as well as quiet, focused tasks. A community pocket park provides space for interactive learning and recreation.

7. L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library

   Design guiding principles for this library building transformation included creating a destination for the region that serves as the heart of the city and linking the building to the Eau Claire River and downtown civic facilities. Stakeholder-directed improvements include a 200-seat program space, an expanded children’s area, a mix of meeting rooms, quiet spaces for study, space for tweens and teens, and a learning lab. Inclusive design elements include aspects that support neurodiversity, gender-inclusive toilet rooms, and comfort rooms.

   A makerspace called the Dabble Box and innovation lab spaces provide access to specialized technology, teaching kitchen equipment, and art equipment to support maker sessions, STEAM-based education, and nutrition literacy. All major building systems, dating back to 1975, were replaced with more efficient and sustainable systems, including a geothermal heating and cooling system that runs below the plaza. Redesigned vertical circulation provides more intuitive wayfinding and better visual connections between all four floors.

8. Olbrich Botanical Gardens Frautschi Family Learning Center

   This new education center and greenhouse enhance learning opportunities related to sustainability and garden stewardship within a nationally-respected and locally-beloved botanical gardens. Focusing on low impact to the watershed, the project contributes to the client’s goal of becoming internationally recognized as a leader in environmental education. The new buildings complement the existing campus’s Prairie School style architecture with low visual impact to gardens.

   The design features a 60,000-gallon underground cistern beneath the learning center that captures rainwater to provide 75% of the water needed for the greenhouse, eliminating the need for a stormwater retention pond on site. The new, highly-efficient smart greenhouse features a hydronic radiant heating system, misting system for localized cooling, automated roof vents, and BAS control. Certified LEED-NC v.3 Platinum and designed to use 61% less energy than the baseline, the learning center features a hydronic radiant floor system and a PV solar array on the roof.

9. Four Seasons Private Residences

   Located on the top six floors of Minneapolis’s new Gateway Tower, these new condos complement the building’s hotel and office space. The Four Seasons Hotel is the first five-star hotel in Minnesota, and the residences are designed to match that standard of luxury. Condo design options include two palettes: the Nordic palette, a calming, refreshing take on modern Scandinavian design; and the Urban palette, a sensuous, glamorous, more urbane scheme. The design features local materials (selected within a 500-mile radius) and natural, healthy, sustainably sourced materials. MSR Design also designed and selected all furniture and art work used in the public spaces, sales center, and model home. We are also currently designing one of the three penthouse condos.

10. Fayetteville Public Library

    This expansion to a community library, originally designed by MSR Design, redefines the traditional public library model, providing enhanced educational opportunities, services, and innovative programming for all ages. The expansion follows the sloping topography sited below the existing building to create a three-sided courtyard with local plantings that serves as a new public gathering space.

    The addition includes a 700-seat, flexible event center that serves as a full-function auditorium; additional meeting and group study spaces; greatly expanded youth services; an innovation center with audio recording studio, video recording studio, editing suites, virtual reality studio, photography studio, a simulation lab, and a fabrication and robotics lab; an art and movement room; an expanded children’s library; a private teens-only lounge and gaming center; a green roof; a commercial teaching kitchen for cooking classes and food production; and a deli that serves the community.