[Mpls] hiawatha flats

[David Brauer]

Cheryl Luger writes:

> the Hiawatha flats
> architecture looks like the stuff I saw in USSR in '62 and Tito
> Jugoslavia...Stalinist (I believe one commissioner referred to it as
eastern
> european)...more acceptance if it didn't look like a wall?.

The Georgian reference jogged a memory: With the *major* caveat that I've
not seen the Hiawatha's design, it's worth noting that Paul Klodt was the
developer who built River West, arguably the ugliest - dare I say Stalinist
- building on the Downtown riverfront. It's the big wide thing that blocks a
good chunk of Downtown's river view.

In fairness, I should note city officials - then desperate for Downtown
development (this was the '80s), okayed Klodt's design. There's even a story
- perhaps apocryphal; I've never confirmed it - the Klodt wanted to build
tall, but the city said no, so he built wide instead.

David Brauer
Kingfield