Theme day: Squares

The Minneapolis Convention Center doesn't have much to commend itself in the architecture category but it served nicely for this month's theme. See others at the City Daily Photo project.

Theme day: Triangles

My Victorian neighborhood has many renovated houses. Some have taken the refurbishment into the New Age.

For more theme day entries, visit the City Daily Photo gallery for April 2014.

Dwight Demaine, Dentist

A perfect 'D' post for today's ABC Wednesday. Not only is Dr. Demaine a dentist but he has turned this Art Deco building in south Minneapolis into his office. What a guy!

Take me to your leader

Another view from Highland Park though these are the modern water towers sharing space in the park with the tower from yesterday's post. This view, taken at sunset, makes them appear slightly extra-terrestial.

The images this week complete my 365 days of posting on this blog. It has been a challenge to find something representing the Twin Cities to post every day for a year. I will continue to post periodically notably for ABC Wednesday and the monthly theme days, but the bulk of my photo work will be devoted to other projects.

Late season golf

Though this photo of Highland Park in St. Paul was taken in November, it could've been a scene from much of December, too. We are not going to have a white Christmas. Whatever your opinion is about that, winter will eventually catch up with us. The water tower, built in 1928, is one of the iconic images of the urban Twin Cities much like the one I posted on Tuesday from Minneapolis.

Along the watch tower

The Prospect Park water tower, built in 1913, is on the highest point of land in Minneapolis and thus visible from many points in the Twin Cities. Rumor has it that Dylan's song title refers to the tower which can be seen from the U of M. You can go up to the look out level but only once a year around Memorial Day when the neighborhood holds an ice cream social.

V is for Victorian

Two examples of residential Victorian architecture side by side in my St. Paul neighborhood - a brownstone next door to a stately clapboard. Fortunately, the glory days of these wonderful homes are back after some pretty grim days in the 60s and 70s. For more V words, visit the ABC Wednesday site here.

Schmidt's or Landmark?

Whatever you call it, the brewery on West 7th in St. Paul takes on a glow in the winter dusk.

Postcard picture

A recent walk around the St. Anthony Main neighborhood ended with this postcard view of downtown Minneapolis (covered in snow as of this past weekend).

Dinkytown to downtown

We've been having some pretty fine fall days here in the Twin Cities and this view of downtown Minneapolis from Dinkytown (the commercial area near the U of M campus) is proof of that. More university views here.

Small town commerce

You get two for the price of one on this last day of photos from places within 100 miles of the Twin Cities. The top one is in Decorah, Iowa and the bottom one in Winona, Minnesota. Both show typical commercial properties in the Midwest from the late 19th and early 20th centuries with just a hint of what the buildings once contained. Here's a previous post from St. Paul, too.

Birth of the Electric Fetus

I recently took a historical walking tour of Cedar-Riverside which is in large part a history of the music scene in Minneapolis. The Electric Fetus record store is no longer in this part of town but here's where it started.

Church tower

Hard to believe this tower belongs to Central Presbyterian Church in downtown St. Paul. It looks like it should be part of a Summit Avenue mansion. Anyway, it's the first post for this week's theme.

Crushers

I may have forgotten to reveal last week's theme (softball, biking, kayaking, canoeing, marathon running). You got it now - sports.

Today starts a new theme. This photo was taken in a kind of no man's land just north of University Avenue near the U of M campus where there are a lot of grain elevators/silos/warehouses. Not really sure what they are there for but maybe they have something to do with the St. Paul ag campus.

Still constructing

So much construction going on in these cities. A lot of it for the light rail line between St. Paul and Minneapolis like this bit along the Washington Avenue bridge which goes through the U of M campus. This also reminds me to schedule a visit to the Weisman which has reopened after a renovation.

Flat tops

These days apartment blocks seem to have multiple facades using multiple materials. Whatever happened to a nice red brick building?

Good night, moon

It's not the leaning tower at Pisa, it's the bell tower at St. Mark's south of Loring Park. Post 4 for this week. You must have guessed the theme by now - brownstones, embedded bits of buildings, rocky shoreline, church tower...

Red brownstones

I'm a little behind on the new week's theme posts, but here we have #1 for the week of Aug 15-19. These solid brownstones on a gracious side street in Saint Paul are built from the same material as the more renowned J. J. Hill mansion around the corner. It was quarried in the Apostle Islands up in Lake Superior and really cuts a dramatic line in the old neighborhoods of the city.

Gingerbread

Post #4 for this week's theme is again from down the street. The (non-edible) gingerbread trim on many of the Victorian homes in my neighborhood has been painstakingly restored although I doubt the original colors were so vivid.

Stairway to the stars

Post # 3 for this week's theme. Do you notice a pattern yet? Down the street someone has constructed this very pleasing, sturdy, and functional fire escape - I imagine that's why this was done.