Secrets of the City

I was actually thinking of writing something similar to this. The parking situation is particularly infurating — who the fuck thought it would be a good idea to make you enter a credit card to exit a parking ramp?

The same people who manage the Hennepin County Goverment Center parking ramps. I hate those things.

Never been in it, but it is such an eyesore on the outside that I don’t know I ever want to. Yuk.

Actually, the exterior is the only part of it I truly love. I could do without the mother-of-pearl interior walls though.

What about the confusing signage in the garage? All the directional flow of the background seem to lead one towards the south end, when all the main entrances are on the north end. Twice now i’ve ended up poking my head into the security center on accident!

It just doesn’t feel very conducive to art, really. I like the sparse design and all, but as the author states, walking into the lobby and gift shop feels like I’m at a MOA kiosk. To me, museums should have a hushed, otherworldly quality, no matter the type of the art, and the Walker feels so sterile now.

I thought the inside was very confusing.

I could do without the po-mo design of the building but it does look pretty cool against the steel gray winter sky.

(After reading the article)

F modernist/post-modernist architecture! Bring back traditional, intuitive patterns!

Ugly on the outside, disappointing on the inside!

Two museums come to mind — the redesigned MoMa and the Modern in Ft. Worth. Both great examples of how contemporary architecture can support the experience of viewing great modern art, not muddle it all up like the new Walker.

I think I’ve climbed the stairs to the top of the new space three times now hoping to find a great view, only to be greeted by a locked door and an elevator ride down.

I keep wondering what they were thinking–why they thought this pompous, confounding, warty structure was the good thing, the right thing. I assume they wanted to create something magnificent, they wanted to make a statement, they probably wanted to be provocative and/or controversial. Still, you don’t spend money like this without a ton of compromise and consensus. So I’m curious–did the decisions-by-committee make the Walker better than it would have been otherwise? Or worse?

My heart bleeds for the poor, confused car owners. Look into mass transit, kids.

I live right by the walker – I don’t mind it. Don’t mind it one bit…complaints won’t do…it’s a huge, well respected modern art museum with wonderful and interesting performances.

Sure – it might not be perfect, it might not be run the way you would run the thing, it might not be your cup of tea architecture wise…but come one…would you rather have the walker or no walker?

Find something to be happy about…geeze.

Despite my stairway to nowhere comment, I love the Walker.

It’s an angry robot head, but why is it pissed at those churches across the street?

A backlash against the Walker? Shocking.

It is in a prime position to have a breathtaking view of downtown and the entire thing is covered in some sort of holey, wrinkly metal skin with little tiny holes in it. How about putting the restorant on top with floor-to-ceiling walls all the way around?

What a waste of space.

it’s not about looking at downtown – it’s about looking at the art

Question:

How has the street level white corner of building not been tagged by graffiti art, as yet?
It is a fantastic canvas – the ugly little corner at the south end of the new building – that is.

Check out this link about the failure of design in the parking garage

Now with URL!

http://www.beadesigngroup.com/blog/archives/2005/09/minneapoliss_walker_art_center_1.html

I really like the new Walker. Granted, I haven’t tried to park there, but the redesign is great. Here’s why: so many of the newly created local spaces are all too familiar. The Walker is different, whether or not people can agree on it.

Also, driving up the Hennepin/ Lyndale connection, the Walker has wonderful displays to distract people who should be paying attention to driving.

Wow, here I was thinking that I was the only dummy who couldn’t find her way around the new parking ramp. I was sooo mad about the hidden doorways and ticket machines that I nearly left without even seeing Cremaster.

Thank you Linda Mack for sayin’ it loud!

As much as we are lucky to have the walker new addition included… i must say both my girlfriend and i agree that our initial experiences there have been pretty poor… the initial lecture for the prefab show was crammed into the tiny gallery 9 space and the speakers were nearly impossible to hear due to poor miking and noisy kitchen equipment, this was after being treated like cattle by the walker staff and having to wait two hours in line because they couldn’t get their sh*t together to distribute advance tickets. To add insult to injury as we drowned the miserable experience in a couple beers after the presentation at the Puck restaurant – we were jostled by a noisy obnoxious crowd of real estate business people who we learned had first dibs on the auditorium that night for their industry gathering.

The Andy Warhol opening felt like a mix between a really big poorly done wedding reception (with heaps of grim appetizers and massive lines waiting for drinks in the lobby) and a day at disney world (long lines to get into a poorly lit and hastily thrown together show).

To wrap up our beefs with the new walker – while the architecture is marginally interesting – it only takes a second to think of what vastly better possible possible solutions could have been done with the millions dumped into herzog de meuron design? The the sharp ribbing Frank Gehry gave the design I think is well deserved…

Oh and what happened to one of the best events the Walker did have going for itself? the block party?

I(we ) hope 2006 is a better one for one of the Best assets of Minneapolis – and perhaps some of the decision making on issues from the trivial to the other end of the scale … improves greatly.

-ak

*oh and i definitely recommend new visitors beware of the parking garage, i have heard of horror stories even coming from the staff on that front.

I miss Walker After Hours. Those were the place to be every second friday night of the month. What happend to those? I don’t think they’ve had a party since the new building opened, nine months ago.

AK, I think I read somewhere (Rake?) that the Walker will be doing their block party thing again, Rock the Garden, in June. No line up or anything has been announced. Hopefully it won’t be somebody as lame as David Byrne this year.

It seems like private events at the walker greatly outweigh the public events. maybe because the place is so rented up to the gills (just how many CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC – PRIVATE EVENT signs does this place own?) that there is no room/time for public events like the greatly missed after hours.

I’ve also climbed up those stairs only to find myself at a locked door! I think that more docents would solve a lot of problems. Even with a map my wife and I had trouble finding the galleries. And the parking lot was a living nightmare for the three car loads of senior citizens in front of us trying not to be late for their Cirque show.

I do love the Walker (loved the Chuck Close exhibit!), but most of us don’t want to use a GPS to find the art in an art museum!

If I go inside the new Walker, I may well go alone, because my wife refuses to set foot in the place.

When she saw the video of the man pushing paint with his face and moaning, and the Yoko Ono video of the talking buttocks on the treadmill, she vowed to never set foot in the place again.

And forgodsake take that “Bits and pieces…” thing off the side of the building.

Pompous is the right attitude. If we don’t appreciate this rot, it’s somehow OUR FAULT.

I am offering to hold anyone’s hand that is scared of the new building. I will even bring my credit card to pay for parking.

I think the building is very striking, and once I found the galleries I even like the exhibit space. But first my husband and I increasingly felt like idiots as we twice climbed the stairs to nowhere, stood like dummies in the restaurant, then finally made our way back into the lobby and asked where the frickin art was. Is that the point? To make us face our existential angst reflected in the modern art and sharp corners of the building as we try not to show our increasing confusion? Or maybe it was just us. Anyway, I still love the Walker, too.

I think the stairs should have a BIG SIGN that says “Stairs to Nowhere”, “Stairs to a Locked Door”, or Lost?…Do Not Go This Way!”. That way its funny and true at the same time.

I saw the chuck close exibit and liked it a lot. The layout of the inside is confusing. Never been in the ramp, and i don’t plan on it either if its just as confusing as the inside. Thanks for saving me another headache people.

umm, do you mean the giant grasshopper head that’s eating minneapolis?

atleast it gives the acid trippers something fun to look at!

I love the Dolphin Oracle. But even the Dolphin Oracle couldn’t explain how to navigate the freaking place.

Yeah, the interior layout of the Walker is very intimidating. It seems like its trying to discourage attendance of the lowest common denominator. The Walker creates an elitist experience when it should be aiming to inspire the appreciation of art in the general public.

Actually, I think it’s sort of fun how it subverts the rational helix of the old building. You cut in and out of those galleries at unexpected places and in curious ways. This may only be the case for somebody that knew the old layout well, though.

Strangely, nobody complains about the MIA layout, and that’s at least as labrynthine.

I will admit that the old Vineland lobby is a flop. And it irks me that I can’t get to the top floor space without finding new friends who can affort to get married there.

Otherwise, it’s growing on me.

Can anyone comment on the food? In the summer I used to enjoy eating lunch there once in awhile out on the deck.

Didn’t wolfgang puck, inc take over the operation?

Tomorrow will be my first trip to the new Walker, so thanks to everyone for the advice about the parking and the stairs. Now I can impress my date with insider knowledge!

I must say that I do love the exterior design. Modern architecture tends to upset a lot of people, but here’s to moving forward, I say! I’m excited about the prefab exhibit, too. Sure would be nice if we could get people interested in affordable and green housing.