Category: Architecture

Some serious engineering and construction went into the design of the two-story retaining wall at 2300 Doswell!

The ‘Irregular Hillocks, Ridges and Hollows’ of St. Anthony Park

August 25, 2021 20.8 Miles St. Anthony Park I’d never thought of St. Anthony Park as being unusually hilly – that is, until this ride. About halfway through it dawned on me that I was getting a nice workout thanks to the elevation changes. The 1920 edition of the Minnesota Historical Society’s Minnesota Geographic Names […]

Shutter Spotting Around the City

This post focuses on a familiar but mostly overlooked decorative accoutrement – window shutters. Before I get to the multiplicity of shutters I’ve laid eyes on while riding around St. Paul, here’s a bit of historical context. A Brief History of Shutters According to several websites, shutters first appeared in ancient Greece; constructed of marble […]

The ADUs of St. Paul … and why aren’t there more of them?

With St. Paul having recently announced plans to once again tinker with its Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) ordinance, it seemed like an apt time to try to figure out just how many people have taken advantage of the citywide ADU ordinance passed in late 2018, and to see just what they’ve been building. So, on a recent beautiful Saturday, I set off on my bike in search of the 12 ADUs that have been permitted and built in St. Paul under the rules set in 2018.

National Links: Buildings as Batteries

Every day at The Overhead Wire, we collect news about cities and send the links to our email list. At the end of the week we take some of the most popular stories and post them to Greater Greater Washington, a group blog similar to streets.mn that focuses on urban issues in the D.C. region. […]

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Hightailing It to Highwood

August 13, 2019 25.4 Miles West Seventh (West End), Downtown, Dayton’s Bluff, Highwood I had a simple plan for this ride. Bike the 11 miles-plus to Boys Totem Town for the closing ceremony and tour of the empty juvenile detention facility in Highwood. I estimated it would take about an hour and a quarter to […]