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This end-of-corridor unit features three exterior walls with exposures to the north, east, and west and views of the Mississippi River. This configuration allows natural light to flood the space and provides a continual visual connection to the landscape. Project success involved full engagement by the design team, contractor, and client.
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.
Bloom Lake Flats is an affordable housing complex with 50% of the apartments dedicated to people living with HIV/AIDS. The project was developed through a partnership between Project for Pride in Living (PPL) and Clare Housing. Bloom Lake Flats provides 42 efficiency dwelling units for residents who earn 15% of the area median income and 1-, 2-, and 3-bedroom apartments for residents earning 30% of the area median income. The complex features spaces for supportive services, including a community room, a yoga room, onsite management and case worker office, and a nurse’s office. Also includes an outdoor green space and a play area.
This home in the Washburn Lofts renovation focused on making the home function well for entertaining. The new owners regularly entertain large groups; but like most homeowners they wanted the home to feel intimate and warm when it is just the two of them. The living room, dining room, guest suite, and media room were completely remodeled and the kitchen was relocated. The new owners also added a walk-in pantry, a wine room, a bar, and a laundry room. In the primary living areas, walnut paneling and cabinetry was chosen to continue the shelving kept in the library, while the concrete floors were ground down to change the luminescence of the concrete.
Kitchen cabinets were salvaged from the previous primary and service kitchens for use in the laundry room and the new pantry. The media room and guest suite switched places to provide a direct connection from the guest bedroom to the guest bathroom. The former flour mill’s exterior walls were uncovered to let them become an important part of the home’s décor.
MSR Design selected new furnishings, lighting, and rugs for the entire home, provided guidance on placement of art and where to place future artworks, and worked with a steel fabricator to design new large-scale art pieces for the entry.
This expansion and renovation to a 3-story affordable housing building adds 40 new dwelling units in a 6-story addition. The existing 40 dwelling units were remodeled as well as all the common spaces including a new integrated front entrance, reception desk, elevator, and bike storage area, as well as a larger, upgraded community kitchen. New staff office space and office space for the support services and property management providers were also added. Programs provided to residents living at Lydia support formerly homeless residents in finding work, building life skills, learning job skills, and managing substance use disorders and mental health issues.
The 6-story addition builds on the building’s mid-century quality by composing a strongly vertical addition that compliments the horizontality of the original building. The addition was pushed back away from the street to provide a more gracious front yard buffer along a busy street. The ground floor contains a glass pavilion that allows visual transparency through the building. The parking court behind the building was sized to meet the needs of the staff, residents, and visitors by successfully appealing to the city to lower the required parking count to match real needs since almost all residents walk, bicycle or use public transit. The apartments come completely furnished with linens and personal care products, since many residents are transitioning from homelessness.
The clients hired MSR Design to help them right size their current Minneapolis home. Creating space for regularly entertaining friends and family became a primary design driver. Completely gutted and reconfigured, the condominium offers a large master suite, contiguous entertainment spaces, and a home office that take advantage of beautiful views across the Mississippi River to downtown Minneapolis.
The home includes a service kitchen for entertaining and a primary kitchen, which opens into a dining/living room for casual entertaining with the fireplace wall acting as a visually unifying agent for the more public spaces. Teak paneling and cabinets and a five foot long, white porcelain cantilevered peninsula complement the white-on-white kitchen.
The design also incorporates the clients’ extensive art collection. Simplicity, careful choreography of spaces, feature lighting throughout the home, and timeless furniture selections characterize the design of this warm, modern home. Interior design was provided in collaboration with Jodi Gillespie Interior Design.
This project involved transforming a brownfield, industrial site in the Prospect Park neighborhood near the Minneapolis/Saint Paul border along the light rail transit Metro Green Line into 63 affordable apartments and 7 market-rate apartments. The site is part of a larger stormwater management district developed through the Prospect North Partnership. Our site was designed to provide stormwater collection and infiltration for a several block area. The district is also an urban village experience with pedestrian-oriented design and high-density livability. Amenities include a community space, conference room, secure courtyard with a play area, bicycle storage for every apartment, and a fitness center. The project received Metropolitan Council TOD funding and MHFA LIHTC funding by complying with Enterprise Green Communities standards.
Originally serving as the headquarters for DuPont de Nemours, Inc., the Dupont Building is an iconic building within the Rodney Square Historic District in downtown Wilmington. This project involved transforming the historic 13-story building into luxury apartments and office space. Through a neutral materials palette, the design honors the legacy of the building, while reinterpreting classic detailing with a modern approach to keep the building timeless. In an effort to preserve as much of the building’s historic fabric as possible, the executive conferencing suite with a two-story boardroom has been converted into a club room, lounge, theater, and coworking space. Other amenities include a gym, dog wash station, and roof deck with dramatic views of downtown.
Sited to be understated as visitors and guests arrive, the structure promotes strong visual connections to the site’s beauty. Flexibly designed with separate dwelling and entertainment wings, the home accommodates comfortable gatherings for groups ranging from 4 to 200 people. Spaces can also be easily closed off and scaled by furnishings to provide intimacy. The house is designed to use 70% less energy per square foot than a standard home, and with the planned addition of hydropower and solar technology, it should achieve near net zero energy consumption.
This new housing complex includes 47 affordable and 43 market rate apartments, underground parking, and various indoor and outdoor community spaces. Using the Living Building Challenge (LBC) as a framework in the process, the designers placed equal emphasis on providing equity and beauty, meeting SB2030 goals for reducing energy 70% below baseline, reducing water use by 50%, and not significantly increasing construction costs over a conventional building. The design incorporates many small measures that add up to significant gains in each of these areas.