Nightlife: Tequila 101

The infernal drink gets the royal treatment at Barrio, a new downtown bar that is trying to give tequila a good name.
By Tom Horgen, Star Tribune
Last update: September 25, 2008 - 5:38 PM

Everybody hates tequila. Even people who say they like tequila hate tequila.

Its mere mention brings back memories of that one night — we’ve all had it — where shots of José Cuervo sloshed our insides, twisted and turned our stomachs and made us scream “Never again!”

Ugh, the horror.

But it doesn’t have to be like this, says the guy behind the massive 100-plus tequila list at the new Barrio in downtown Minneapolis. Tequila expert Junior Williams (son of legendary jazzman Irv Williams) uses words like “misunderstood” and “demonized” to describe the harsh perceptions of Mexico’s famous export.

For him, tequila is “a pure love,” a liquor with soul. “After I was introduced to the higher-end tequilas — now that’s all I drink,” Williams said.

He’s not alone. According to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, imports of tequila have risen 46 percent since 2002, with top-shelf brands growing fastest.

If you’ve got the guts and want to explore the full range of tequila that Barrio has to offer, you’ll have to know more than just Cuervo and trendy Patron.

Here are nine things you need to know about tequila, i.e., what we managed to scribble down during a recent tequila tasting at Barrio.

1. It’s all about the agave

What’s agave? For tequila, it’s everything. The large desert plant (not a cactus) includes hundreds of species, but only one — the blue agave — is made into tequila. Connoisseurs drink only tequila that is labeled “100 percent agave.” If it’s not labeled, it’s called a “mixto,” meaning only 51 percent of the liquor is pure agave with the rest a concoction of sugar cane and other additives. This country’s top-selling tequila, José Cuervo Gold, is a mixto. “You always want to see if it’s 100 percent agave,” Williams said. “It’s always going to mean better quality.”

2. Mexico is serious about its tequila

Tequila is regulated by the Mexican government. Just as champagne in France may only be called champagne if it was made in a particular region, tequila is only tequila if it was made near its titular town in the state of Jalisco in western Mexico.

3. Tequila gets better with age

Tequila typically is broken down into five categories: Mixtos are called gold, while 100 percent agave tequilas are called blanco (also called silver), reposado (rested), anejo (aged) and extra anejo (extra aged). Blancos go right from distillation into the bottle, while reposados and anejos are aged anywhere from three months to several years. “A lot of people make the mistake of thinking 'gold’ means better,” Williams said. But colors can be deceiving. The gold in mixtos usually comes from artificial coloring, while the gold or brown color of reposados and anejos come from cognac and bourbon oak barrels used in the aging process.

4. Hold the salt and lime

If you’ve had a shot of tequila, you know the lick-shoot-suck routine. But that spring-break silliness should only be done with minor tequila brands. “Anejo and extra anejo shouldn’t be shot; they should be savored,” Williams said. In fact, Williams urges tequila drinkers to ...

5. ... treat it like wine

While you might be used to drinking tequila from a shot glass, the proper way to serve most reposados and anejos is in a flute or snifter. Likewise, you’ll see tequila drinkers like Williams co-opting that common wine ritual: Swirl, sniff, sip (and swish, too). Don’t worry, only lesser-quality tequilas sting. While that intense peppery taste remains in many tequilas, the higher-end brands offer more pleasure than pain.

6. There is no worm

At some point, tequila and that fabled worm-in-the-bottle became inseparable. But real tequila never has a worm. That’s mescal, a similar and widely distributed Mexican liquor made in different regions and produced under different guidelines. The worm simply verifies the proof of alcohol, Williams said.

7. Don’t look for Patron in Mexico

While the smooth-tasting Patron has become the second-highest-selling tequila brand in the United States, it’s not sold in Mexico, Williams said.

8. Bring your credit card

The 100-plus tequila shots at Barrio range in price from $4 to a staggering $95. The latter is the Gran Patron Burdeos, which is triple distilled and aged in Bordeaux wine barrels from France’s Chateaux Margaux.

9. A tip from Barrio’s tequila connoisseur

Williams said his favorite tequila is Arette Suave, a reposado that is rested in white oak barrels for six months. The $19 shot — one that you should sip — has a floral scent and notes of vanilla and pepper. Very well rounded. “If I could only drink one tequila,” Williams said, “this is the one I would drink.” That’s pure love.

Mpls. wine bar to pull out all the stops with new technology

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Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal - by John Vomhof Jr. Staff Writer
Brian Gruis and Brent Mayes, partners in Cesare's Wine Bar in Stillwater, are bringing a new, technologically advanced wine bar to northeast Minneapolis.
Blue Skies will feature the Enomatic, an Italian wine-serving system that will allow customers to sample 100 different wines in portions as small as an ounce, not just by the glass or bottle. The device, which looks like a high-tech espresso machine, uses nitrogen-infusion technology to preserve wine for several weeks after a bottle is opened, allowing the restaurant to offer the smaller portions without worrying about waste.
The restaurant will be the first in Minnesota to use the Enomatic system, and Gruis thinks consumers will jump at the opportunity to try a wide variety of wines in smaller, less-expensive portions. Most wines will cost about $1 an ounce.
"If you want to sample a couple tastes with different courses, you could do that," Gruis said. "It opens things up in terms of the ability of consumers to appreciate a wider variety and also higher-end wines than would typically be available by the glass."
Blue Skies is slated to open next spring at 24 University Ave. S.E., across from Surdyk's Liquor & Cheese Shop, the state's largest liquor store. The wine bar has hired Minneapolis-based Shea Inc. to convert the roughly 3,000 square feet of office space into a restaurant.
Blue Skies will be split into two parts: a full-service dining area and a more casual bar area. The bar area will allow customers to use the Enomatic system on a self-service basis using credit cards or house debit cards.
In addition to wine, Blue Skies will feature a small-plate menu and 15 to 20 champagnes and artisan beers. Local musicians will provide live, acoustic music.
The Enomatic system is gaining popularity nationwide, said Bertrand Lapoire, general manager for the east and southeast regions for International Gourmet Corp., a Tucker, Ga.-based firm that imports and distributes the technology in 18 states, including Minnesota.
"There's real buzz about the system, whether it's wine stores, wine bars, restaurants or hotels," he said.

Ballpark neighborhood seeks identity

go to www.shealink.com
Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal - by John Vomhof Jr. Staff Writer

The new Minnesota Twins ballpark finally has a name, but the district around the stadium still needs one.
Of course, the area around Target Field already has several monickers — Warehouse District, North Loop, Downtown West — but neighboring businesses want to develop one collective brand to promote the ballpark district when the facility opens in 2010, hoping to drive sales in ways the Metrodome never did at the other end of downtown Minneapolis.

2010 Partners — a group comprised of ballpark stakeholders such as neighbors, business owners and officials from the Twins, city of Minneapolis and Hennepin County — has launched an initiative to rebrand and promote the area. The organization is working with Minneapolis-based architectural and marketing firm Shea Inc. to create one identity that all parties can rally behind.
“There are a lot of mixed messages out there, so we just want to create a more cohesive vision and develop consistent, key messages and unified marketing efforts,” said Andy McDermott, communications director for Shea and co-chair of the 2010 Partners subcommittee exploring the district-identity issue. “We don’t want 10 different names for the same area and then have people from Eagan who don’t have a clue where they are. We want it to be accessible, understandable and recognizable.”

Once a name is selected, 2010 Partners plans to launch a public-relations and marketing campaign to build recognition for the area. The group intends to promote the ballpark neighborhood as a “completely connected, vibrant, safe, urban community” that people should visit before and after Twins games, McDermott said. The group is assembling a leadership team to coordinate the branding initiative and is seeking partners to help pay for it.

Building a brand
2010 Partners is modeling its efforts after L.A. Live, a sports and entertainment district anchored by Staples Center in Los Angeles. The group also looked at Denver’s LoDo District and San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter as strong examples of district branding.

While it has floated some possible names, such as Warehouse Live and Warehouse Central, it has not started the formal branding process yet. The name likely will play off of the Warehouse District, the area’s most common and most recognizable monicker.

A key piece of the new ballpark-district brand will be an umbrella Web site featuring a comprehensive calendar of events and information about the area.

“Whether we all combine together under this one group or we all maintain our own separate identities, we still want to have one landing site so that people aren’t getting bombarded with different messages,” McDermott said.

The Warehouse District Business Association (WDBA) has increased its own marketing efforts, but its member bars and restaurants also felt it was important to get involved with the 2010 Partners’ broader ballpark-district branding campaign, said Joanne Kaufman, executive director of the WDBA and co-chair of 2010 Partners’ identity subcommittee. “We all want to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to market the entire area, create this identity and make it a wonderful, family-oriented environment that people want to come to.”

Denver’s Lower Downtown, or LoDo, marketing initiative actually started several years before Coors Field opened, but really took off thereafter. Jason Dennison, executive director of Denver’s LoDo District neighborhood association, said a similar marketing approach could work in Minneapolis, but the key is to maintain a local focus.

“There are so many variables that I don’t think it’s a one-size-fits-all,” Dennison said. “You really have to find what’s unique about your specific district. What is your district and where are you headed?”

One place, many names
The Target Field site is located on the border of Minneapolis’ Downtown West and North Loop neighborhoods and squarely within the Warehouse District, which overlaps both neighborhoods. The Warehouse District isn’t an official city-designated neighborhood, but it has been marketed that way by various groups for years. Some groups also have referred to the area around the ballpark as the Warehouse Entertainment District or the Northern Warehouse (NoWare) District.

While it’s important for those various groups to come together for the ballpark-district branding campaign, 2010 Partners has been careful not to diminish their individual identities, McDermott said. “If anything, I think we’ve been overly sensitive in that area. We were prepared for that kind of response, but we’re not getting it. We’re seeing people who want to play well in the sandbox and are willing to rethink the way they do things if we can stand together to make things better.”

2010 Partners hasn’t decided yet whether it will outline borders for the ballpark district or keep the definition vague.

Dan Kenney, executive director of the Minnesota Ballpark Authority, said he thinks the ballpark district’s borders and future identity will be defined organically over time based on how residents view the area.

“To me, this new neighborhood — and I do think that it ultimately will be a new neighborhood — will be defined by the ballpark and the new rail lines,” he said.

Hotel Bars are the new "It" clubs?

Check out the Shea Designed Chambers Hotel in this article. See our website at www.shealink.com

You don't need a room to party at any one of the Twin Cities' growing list of elegant hotel bars.
By TOM HORGEN, Star Tribune
Last update: September 19, 2008 - 6:22 AM

Thank you, hotel bars. In just a few years' time, you have taken the Twin Cities nightlife scene to the next level of cool. You have enabled those of us who live in fly-over land to rub elbows with those who are flying over. You have given us the über-cool Graves and the artsy-cool Chambers. And, just as those places cool off, you give us the W Hotel in the renovated Foshay Tower.
Hotel bars -- once the domain of lonely, rumpled traveling salesmen -- are not only as hot as any nightclub, some of them are nightclubs (with no cover!). Three swank hotels have opened in Minneapolis since August -- the W Hotel, the Hotel Minneapolis and a funky little place called aloft (so hip, it's all in lowercase). Like the Chambers and Graves before them, each is anchored by a fun, flashy and refreshing bar scene. Holiday Inns these are not.
There was a time when crashing a bar at a hotel where you were not a guest seemed uncouth -- almost like going into someone's home, drinking their liquor and then leaving. Nationally, the boutique W chain, among others, helped change that by creating destination bars that attract more locals than hotel guests.
In Minneapolis, the W is far and away the metro's blockbuster hotel bar. On weekends, its first-floor bar (dubbed the Living Room for its abundance of oversized furniture) transforms into a nightclub playground for a loud mass of dressed-up, pampered partyers.
"They know, and it's not just the travelers, the W means 'party,' " said the hotel's developer, Ralph Burnet. "And they party hardy."
The Republican National Convention had a role in this sudden uptick of new hotels. But with the Republicans gone, we're stuck with these bastions of swankness, so we might as well put them to good use.
They're needed, too, because there hasn't been a big splash in the nightclub scene since Aqua and Envy opened side by side 18 months ago. You know times are tough in the nightlife industry when hotel bars are the hot thing. But maybe that's an unfair slam on hotels-as-clubs, since some serious players are behind these hot spots. Real estate mogul Burnet masterminded the W's Foshay renovation (he also owns Chambers), with the interior by Toronto firm Munge Leung Design Associates. The W brand is also felt in the build-out of aloft. And Morrissey Hospitality, the company behind the St. Paul Hotel, now has Hotel Minneapolis.
With this glut of hotel bars at an all-time high, the places that sparked the trend are now playing catch-up. The Graves closed its once-mighty Infinity Lounge earlier this year with plans to reopen the space as Bradstreet, a small-plate/mixology lounge, in November. And the Chambers is in the midst of a rejuvenation, with a more lively courtyard scene with colorful furniture, a pool table and cabanas, and changes coming to its minimalist fifth-floor club.
If you're still feeling weird about hanging out at a hotel bar, think about this: You won't be the only one without a room. Even if all the guests from the W's 230 rooms were in its bar, they'd only be a fraction of the hundreds of Twin Cities clubgoers that fill the dance floor each weekend.
And if you're feeling extra special after having too much to drink -- and you're looking to ramp up your own cool quotient -- make like one of those frumpy business types flying over us: Get a room.

aloft
How about some Hungry Hungry Hippos with that infused pineapple-chipotle tequila cocktail? That combination of fun is the main idea at w xyx (yes, that's its name), a colorful, LED-lit bar inside the aloft hotel. As the name suggests, they do things a bit differently here. The chipper staff greets you with a big "Aloha!" They call their drinks "elixirs." And littered throughout the joint are childhood board games -- it's like a chic version of the Chatterbox in south Minneapolis. About that name: it's a play on sister company, W Hotels. The bar, lying close to both the Guthrie Theater and the Metrodome, hopes to be a neighborhood staple among downtown Minneapolis' condo crowd. It's off to a good start. Today it hosts a Twin Cities fashion show. Soon it'll start "Diva DJs" a Thursday groove night featuring local female DJs. And while they might only have four tap beers, they're all local, too. (900 Washington Av. S., Mpls., 612-455-8400, starwoodhotels.com/alofthotels.)

The W Hotel
Everybody from suburban moms to downtown clubbers has been running to check this place out as if their lives depended on it. There's a lot to see. The first-floor bar is called Living Room, but they should've just called it Nightclub, because when the weekend hits that's exactly what it is. Its 40-foot quartz bar is lined with pretty people who squish together, drinking, dancing, doing what pretty people do. Around the corner and 27 floors up is the W's crown jewel: Prohibition. It's fashioned out of Wilbur Foshay's former office suite -- now a set of interconnecting rooms made for partying in the sky. Nooks and crannies abound, perfect for late-night snuggling. There's even a bed in one corner. The drinks are what you'd expect -- bold and expensive. Try the Epiphany (made from Veuve champagne, elderflower liqueur and pear vodka). It's a $12 girly drink even guys will love. (821 Marquette Av., Mpls. 612-215-3700, starwoodhotels.com/whotels.)

Hotel Minneapolis
There's been some hoopla over restaurant Max's wild, some say awkward, interior design. When they renovated the old space -- the grand Midland Bank -- they kept the bank's large marble columns, but added a plethora of other out-there design touches. Namely, those exaggerated red glass petals that loom over the dining room. Whatever the case, at least they make the place interesting. Happy hour (4-6 p.m. and 9-11 p.m. Mon.-Fri.) has been a hit, where the bar shows off its flat-bread creations, mixologist-tinged cocktails and extensive wine list. Like the hotel bar at the nearby Westin (also located in an old bank), the wine cellar sits in the old vault. Now if restaurant Max hurts your eyes, there's always the chilled-out lobby bar, quaintly dubbed the "LB." (215 4th St. S., Mpls., 612-340-0303, therestaurantmax.com)

The thrill's not gone for B.B. King

By Billy Watkins, USA TODAY
INDIANOLA, Miss. — B.B. King's fingers were lightning fast, too smooth to be described as machinelike.
His peers, even the most accomplished ones, would watch in amazement. How does he do that? He had no explanation. His fingers, he told them, were simply an extension of his soul.

King, a teenager then, knew he was good. He could pick more than 400 pounds of cotton a day. His personal best was 480.
"I had a cousin, Birkett Davis. Me and him could pick a bale of cotton a day. That was 900 pounds back then," King says. "And, man, we were proud of that. I still am."
King's fingers eventually moved from the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta to the neck of a Gibson electric guitar, affectionately nicknamed Lucille. He has played his signature blues in 90 countries. In 1987, he earned a lifetime achievement Grammy and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2006, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Just shy of 83 (his birthday is Tuesday), he's still making music. He plays about 100 shows a year and released a new album of blues standards, One Kind Favor, in August.
Little is missing from B.B. King's wish list these days.
"Well, maybe a beautiful woman to hold in my arms," he says with a smile. "I love women."
Twice divorced and the father of 15 children, he has battled diabetes in recent years, but his health appears good. King looks slimmer than he has in years, though he has trouble maneuvering stairs or standing for long periods of time.
"Honestly, I feel great," he says, sipping a Diet Coke shortly after the unveiling ceremonies for the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center, which opened Saturday here in his hometown of Indianola after five years in the planning.
"I sure don't feel 82 — or 83. Whatever I am."
He's still hungry for knowledge. "My brain is like a sponge. I'm interested in anything out there. I want to learn. Because to be honest, I always feel sort of second-best when I am around people who went to school, who got an education."
Sitting on the stage of a small auditorium where visitors can watch a short documentary about his life before touring the museum, King is in a reflective mood.
He's thinking of his mother, Nora Ella King, who died when he was 9.
"I would pay whatever it would take for a picture of her," says King, a white handkerchief in his left hand alternately dabbing away sweat and tears. "I don't even have a good picture of her in my mind.
"A lot of people back then thought if you let somebody take a picture of you, you were giving them your soul," King explains. "Plus, taking pictures was complicated and expensive. We were country folks who didn't have a lot of money."
And away he went, on a precious ramble down memory lane, about growing up as a hand on a plantation where they ate whole pigs, ears and all. Where they drank crystal-clear water from an artesian well. Where they had no electricity and nothing but work awaiting them at sunrise. Where worries seemed few.
He earned 75 cents a day chopping cotton, 35 cents per hundred pounds picking it.
"But don't get me wrong, that was a lot of money in those days," King says. "I loved my work and I loved my life."
Saturday was always his favorite day. He was off work by noon and headed to town as quickly as he could put on a fresh shirt.
King became interested in the guitar at age 6 while watching the Rev. Archie Fair pick and sing at the Sanctified Church of God in Christ in Indianola. King bought his first when he was 12, a red Stella acoustic. It cost $15, about his monthly salary.
"I worked for the Catledge family, and Mr. Catledge agreed to buy it for me, and he would take out half of it one month, and then half the next," King says.
He even wanted to be a preacher.
"But when I would go into Indianola and play there on the corner of Church and Second Street every Saturday, I got different reactions," King recalls. "When I played gospel, people would pat me on the shoulder and tell me I was going to be good one day. But when somebody asked me to play a blues song, they would also give me a tip.
"Sometimes I made more money on Saturday than I made all week driving a tractor."
He moved to Memphis in 1946 to pursue a music career. The blues were taking hold of him.
At some point in the past 62 years, that turned around. King got hold of the blues and redefined the genre.
In 2003, Rolling Stone named King the third-best guitar player in history, behind only Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman.
"No question, B.B. King is the most influential blues player of all time," says blues historian Scott Barretta, host of Mississippi Public Broadcasting's Highway 61 radio show. "The way he bent the strings, his phrasing, his technique" changed the blues.
"B.B. grew up around traditional Delta blues, but he wasn't totally defined by it. He also loved big bands like Count Basie and the Kansas City swing sound. He took all that and created his unique sound. And just about anybody who plays blues or rock has been influenced by it."

B.B. King isn't singing the blues over museum

By Billy Watkins, USA TODAY
INDIANOLA, Miss. — B.B. King didn't seem too thrilled about his hometown wanting to build a museum in his honor.
"He didn't get back to us right away," says Jim Abbott, retired editor of Indianola's weekly newspaper, The Enterprise-Tocsin. "So we sort of thought he wasn't interested."
King had warmed to the idea by the time he returned over the weekend for the opening of the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center.
It was quite a birthday present: The blues musician turns 83 on Tuesday.

"My goodness," King said, his voice cracking, when he saw his name on the front of the museum. "I didn't go to school long enough to be able to tell you how I feel. But I have heard that heaven is beautiful. If heaven is more beautiful than the way I feel today, I'm ready to go tomorrow."
The $15 million, state-of-the-art museum is housed in a 20,000-square-foot brick building where King ginned cotton as a teenager.
"It puts my feet back on the ground where they should be — the last place I worked around here," King says.
Though the museum is in an isolated area — two hours from the casinos of Tunica, 90 minutes from the state capital of Jackson — organizers are certain fans will come.
"We view this as an anchor to the Mississippi Blues Trail," which places markers at historic blues sites, says marketing director Allan Hammons.
The building team raised $1.7 million in economically strapped Indianola (pop. 12,066) — $140.89 a person. The rest came from private donations, grants and a state bond.
"B.B. gave us the key to his house (in Las Vegas) and basically told us to take what we wanted," says executive director Connie Gibbons.
When King walked in from the road, there were yellow Post-it notes all over his home, signifying items the museum wanted. "We even stuck one on him," Gibbons says with a laugh.
One treasure: King's home studio, with all the instruments and recording equipment as it was the day the curators arrived, down to a paper clip.
King's pride in the museum is apparent, but he hopes visitors will see a deeper meaning.
"To young people who don't think education is important, tell them this: I wonder what would've come of me if I hadn't chosen my profession."

Tequila time

By Sarah McKenzie
I don’t know about you, but when I think about tequila bars, I get images of crazed college students at Senor Frogs.
Barrio, the new upscale tequila bar on Nicollet Mall, does not fit that stereotype. It’s the latest restaurant by acclaimed restaurateurs Josh Thoma and Tim McKee — the chefs behind Solera and La Belle Vie.
While the tequila is the main attraction at this new, hip hotspot, the menu has several star dishes one would expect from the Thoma and McKee team — simple small plates ($7.50) featuring fresh, high quality ingredients with standout flavors, such as made-to-order guacamole, sugarcane-skewered tequila shrimp, barbecue pork sopes, diver scallop ceviche and fresh corn chowder, to name a few.
The tacos and enchiladas ($3.50–$4) are small dishes as well, perfect sizes for lunch or a late-night bar snack. Larger plate options on the menu include Oaxaca-style baby back ribs with sautéed plaintains ($18), seared tuna with tomatillo-avocado salsa ($22), roasted chicken with apricot-pine nut mole and sautéed greens ($16), sautéed shrimp with tangerine-serrano mojo and cilantro rice ($18), and grilled skirt steak with chile-lime tequilla ($19).
The menu is inspired by the street food of Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico and Puerto Rico. The overall concept for Barrio came from local real estate developers Tim Rooney and Ryan Burnet, who requested McKee come up with a bar menu that featured tacos and guacamole.
“I approached the menu the same way I would for any of our restaurants,” McKee said in a prepared statement. “This is the type of cuisine I absolutely love but never have an opportunity to cook. The cuisines of Latin America have fresh, bright, bold flavors, and it’s great to finally have a venue where I can showcase them.”
Downtown-based Shea Inc. designed Barrio, a cozy space with dark red walls that can seat about 100 on its main floor, outdoor patio area and second-floor mezzanine. The firm’s founder David Shea called the décor a “cultural festival with a twist.”
“It’s not Mexican. It’s not American. It’s all those things blended together,” he said of the space that used to be home to a Dunn Bros.
The unique elements include Mexican marionettes hanging from the ceiling above the bar, a bull’s head donated by Shea, ’40s and ’50s pinups and wrought-iron stand with votive candles that guests can light and make a wish.
The drink menu, which features more than 100 tequilas and mezcals has been designed by popular mixologist Johnny Michaels. Barrio customers can also get “Compadres” with their tequila drinks — special chasers with flavors like spicy grapefruit, pineapple lime, cilantro-tomato water, melon and ginger/apple. Other drink highlights include “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly,” a cocktail featuring tequila with tamarind cola, and “Cobra Verde,” a cherry-lime margarita with a dash of absinthe.
Barrio Tequila Bar & Café
925 Nicollet Mall
barriotequila.com
333-9953

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Hempel and Alex Brown Realty, Inc. closed on the Rand Tower in Minneapolis

by Walter KovacsMinneapolis-St. Paul

Hempel and Alex Brown Realty, Inc., in a joint venture, closed on the acquisition of the 194,316-square-foot Rand Tower office property in downtown Minneapolis. An equity commitment for the venture was provided by Chesapeake Fund III. Financing was secured by the partnership from Grandbridge Real Estate Capital, LLC. Hempel plans on relocating its headquarters to the Rand building this year.Upgrades are planned for common areas and elevators to aid in the aggressive pursuit of new tenants. The Rand tower, developed in 1929 by Rufus Rand, is an Art Deco-style building with smaller floor plates allowing for abundant windows and more natural light.

Address: 527 Marquette Ave., Minneapolis, Minn.

Size: 194,316 square feet

Top 30 Design Blogs & Resources For Architects

by Kimberley D. Mok, Montreal, Canada on 07.21.08
Design & Architecture

Though by no means completely complete, if you’re keen on getting a steady dose of the latest about design (sustainable or otherwise), or are looking for a job posting, or just need inspiration for your design projects, check out this list of these helpful sites out after the jump. (We invite you to add your favourites as well.) www.shealink.com

Top Architecture Blogs
1. A Daily Dose of Architecture: Written by John Hill, a New York City resident, architecture student and blogger.
2. BLDGBLOG: Written by Archinect team member, writer and editor for DWELL magazine Geoff Manaugh, with tidbits on design, architecture and landscape design.
3. a456: Nice density of architecture theory and history, written by Enrique Ramirez, a Ph.D. student in History and Theory of Architecture at Princeton.
4. Archinect: This site is more of a go-to point that converges a number of architecture school blogs that are worth looking through. Also has job and design competition postings for you seekers out there.
5. Death By Architecture: Run by a small team of designers who say Death By Architecture is "an understatement." Lots of information on competitions, as the title suggests. Interactive calendar, too. (Personally, I would love to sport the T-square through the heart t-shirt...)
6. Inhabitat: Always informative, always pithy, a valuable news resource on green design.
7. Interactive Architecture: Maintained by Diploma thesis tutor Ruairi Glynn as a place to collect ideas about integrating interactivity into architecture.
8. Pruned: This blog focuses on the role of landscape in design and is written by landscape architect Alexander Trevi.
9. Architecture + Morality: A civil engineer, an architect and a pastor and their musings on the connections between architecture, politics, economics and religion.

Architecture News
10. ArchNewsNow: Good site for architecture news from around the world. Sign up for their newsletter for daily updates.
11. Architecture Planet: This site collects architecture-related news from sites all over the world.
12. Modern Architecture Design News: Huge list of topics and current news.
13. Architecture Lab: Informative and well-organized online magazine with the latest in architecture news.

Green Building Resources
14. BLYGAD: Translating into “Blog Like You Give a Damn,” is written by Colin Kloecker for the Architecture for Humanity in Minnesota, and focuses on creating sustainable architecture on a global scale.
15. Earth Architecture: One of my favourites, this site is a great resource on sustainable earth architecture happenings worldwide.
16. Eco Tecture: Information on green build projects in large cities like Chicago, New York and London.
17. greenbuildingsNYC: This blog covers news on the latest green buildings in NYC.

Architectural Photography (gotta see it to believe it, right?)
18. URBANPHOTO: This photo-blog has images of urban spaces, buildings and people from all over the world.
19. Offbeat Homes: Quirky homes get their fifteen minutes! Landscape Architecture Resources
20. Free Soil: Nifty-as-heck site where you’ll find ideas about effective and sustainable landscape design, organized by topic.
21. Land + Living: Latest news on landscape design issues.
22. The Dirt: News blog by the American Society of Landscape Architects.

General Resources
23. Center for Universal Design: This site provides information on the “principles of universal design” to help designer create buildings that are accessible as possible.
24. ArtLex Dictionary of Visual Art: Simple site that lets you brush up on thousands of art and architecture terms and their definitions.
25. TechStreet: Building and safety codes may not be exciting fare to read, but necessary if you actually want to build something. Find what you need here.
26. Architype Review: Site organized by information on various building typologies; there’s a discussion forum, and can be a good place to comb through to generate ideas on new building types.
27. Great Buildings: From the pyramids of Giza to more recent masterworks, you can find great buildings from anytime and anywhere on this site.
28. ArchINFORM: Here you’ll find a huge online database of architects and buildings which has been described as one of the most useful architecture resources on the Internet.
29. High Rise Buildings Database: All about skyscrapers.
30. World Architects: Profiles of architects, firms from New York, Germany, Austria, Mexico, China, Japan and more – covering 14 countries and then their sub-regions.

RNC in Review: How did you do?

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Excerpts from Star Tribune - Thursday, September 11, 2008

"We had a fantastic week. It's hard to picture that we will ever match the sales that we had last week. For us it was like adding a 13th month to the year. A slow month, like a July or an August, but still, we did that much business in four days. I know some restaurants did better than others; I have the luxury of having a good week.
"But what we did at the restaurant was secondary to what happened to the city. The coverage from all over the world was overwhelmingly positive. How about when Chris Matthews of MSNBC said that 'St. Paul is so much nicer than Minneapolis'? or Brian Williams said that 'If you don't like St. Paul, you'd have to have a screw loose'? It was like a four-day commercial for the city.
"The vast majority of our customers were media people, because the delegates all had places to go. We had Tom Brokaw, Gwen Ifill, Chris Wallace. George Stephanopoulos was in five times in four days, I feel like I should call him and see how he's doing. We had a great mix of being open to the public and holding private events. If you didn't have private events you were probably pretty slow, and I imagine that the restaurants that stayed all-public are probably pretty upset this week.
"The host committee should have been more realistic. Too much was happening in Minneapolis; they bused people in and out and never gave them the opportunity to see St. Paul. I don't think I slept more than four hours a night all week. It was so exciting to see the city so alive, in the way that St. Paul never is. I would look out the front of the restaurant and the sidewalks looked like Manhattan, there were so many people."
Russell Klein, chef/co-owner of Meritage in downtown St. Paul. The restaurant is located off Rice Park, just outside the convention's security perimeter.
• • •
"At Barrio, we saw a lot of traffic, but I think it was locals coming in to check it out. At Smalley's we had a lot of local business, I think some people were staying away from the downtowns. At La Belle Vie we did some good business, especially in the lounge, and we did a lunch for Bob Dole. And at Solera we did big events on Monday and Tuesday; events booked for Wednesday and Thursday canceled.
"If you didn't have events booked, then I don't think you saw an increase in business, the reason being that people generally went to the Xcel around 5:30 and didn't leave until 10:30, when they went to a private party, like the ones we had at Solera. The party on Monday, for the Distilled Spirits Council, was the biggest one we've ever had at the restaurant, I think 1,200 people came through.
"I got a set of credentials for Wednesday and Thursday night, to see the spectacle of the RNC. I can see why people like Dave Cossetta would be disappointed. I walked past Cossetta's, where they had put up a huge outdoor beer garden with live music. It was empty. Inside the arena, they had run out of hot dogs and hamburgers, because I think that once people got into the Xcel they stayed there, they didn't want to go out and then go through the hassle of getting back in."
Josh Thoma, co-owner of La Belle Vie, Solera and Barrio in downtown Minneapolis and Smalley's Caribbean Barbeque in Stillwater. Barrio opened the week before the RNC.
• • •
"It started out gangbusters, but kind of fizzled at the end. Overall I'd say it was positive, but we were nowhere near as busy as we had hoped to be. Being in the base hotel, we had a lot of business the week before [the convention], and that's generally a quiet week. One delegate's comment was that he couldn't wait to get home and have a meal, because as a delegate you go from reception to convention to reception and you don't ever sit down for dinner. That was our competition."
Rick Kimmes, chef of the Oceanaire Seafood Room in downtown Minneapolis. The restaurant is located in the Hyatt Regency Hotel, the RNC's headquarters hotel.
• • •
"It was great for us, by far the best week we've ever had. It's not even close. We were fortunate because we had so many private bookings, and so many interesting bookings, due to our relationship with the National Journal. They published the newspaper for the convention every day, and they made us their headquarters. They had morning panel discussions on our stage, and they were fascinating. C-Span broadcast live one day, and taped on another. We were grateful that we had all those events booked, because we realized early in the week that there wasn't a lot of casual business walking around on the streets. There was definitely an air of excitement for us and for our staff. We met some really interesting people, we had wonderful responses to what we were doing so, yes, we were happy. We say, 'Let's do another one.'"
Lowell Pickett, owner of the Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant in downtown Minneapolis.

Shea-designed Barrio opening review

An impressive tequila list draws the crowds at newcomer Barrio

RICK NELSON - Star Tribune 9/11/08

At Barrio, Tim McKee and Josh Thoma are taking the small-plate shtick -- the one they perfected at Solera, their nearby tapas haven -- and putting a Mexican spin on it. Their new and instantly popular Nicollet Mall hot spot is really more of a bar with food than a restaurant with a cocktail list.
Fine by me, especially when the great-looking bar stocks 100-plus tequilas, serving them by the shot, mixed with house-made sodas or as the foundation for a splashy libations roster devised by La Belle Vie mixmeister Johnny Michaels.
The food side features a dozen smallish plates -- a silky corn chowder, lovely crab empanadas, a pair of dainty sopes topped with barbecue-style pork, guacamole and chips -- each priced at $7.50. There are seven tacos and enchiladas ($3.50 to $4), and larger appetites can choose from five entree-size offerings ($16 to $22), including a big slab of seared tuna paired with a vegetable-pocked quinoa salad and meaty pork ribs with sauteed plantains.
The lively storefront space is nicely cramped, the way a good cocktail party should be (the main floor is where it's at; the mezzanine has a bit of a B-list aura), and it's peppered with amusing touches: live-action marionettes, an over-the-top candelabra dripping more wax than Madame Tussauds. Nice.

BARRIO
925 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, 612-333-9953, barriotequila.com
Open 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Friday, 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. to midnight Sunday.

September Dates to Remember

1 - Labor Day SHEA CLOSED

7 - Steve's Birthday

13 - Josh's Anniversary

15 - Jim's Birthday

16 - Nathan's Birthday

20 - Andy's Anniversary

25 - Heather's Birthday

Now Open

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Star Tribune Last update: August 27, 2008 - 12:24 PM

Three new faces have popped up in the past few days, just in time for the RNC: Pop!! (6 W. 6th St., St. Paul) is drawing crowds at the former Fhima's. Barrio (925 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis), the Mexican sibling to La Belle Vie, Solera and Smalley's Caribbean Barbeque & Pirate Bar, is now pouring tequilas and serving crab empanadas. And McCormick & Schmick's has launched its second Twin Cities outpost, at the Westin Galleria in Edina.

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Shea, Inc. rebrand Minnesota mall's Trail Mark

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by Jim Brubaker
Minneapolis-St. Paul



Trail Mark, an 1,800-square-foot outdoor specialty retail store in the Edina, Minn., Galleria Mall, recently re-opened, showcasing a remodel by Minneapolis-based Shea, Inc.



Shea was tasked with fitting the new demographic Trail Mark, a longtime Galleria tenant, is attempting to reach as its customer base has shifted over the years. Trail Mark sought to refresh its image with a newer store design, elevating the customer experience by changing from a rugged outdoors focus to one of a sophisticated outdoors store.



Shea first determined strong brand elements to be used in the redesign for Trail Mark. The large red overhead garage door entrance to the store was kept and its distinctive color of red was picked for the entire brand. Next, an oversized 8-foot red bench and glossy-red antler chandelier were added to the space as was a red neon sign marking the entrance.



An Aspen, Colo. theme was invoked for the interior. Oversized mirrors were placed, artwork depicting inspiring outdoor scenes went up and simple, high-end fixtures mixed with raw steel and weathered materials completed the look.



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Shea and Hemisphere Companies partner on South Beach casino expansion

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MINNEAPOLIS (September 5, 2008) – Shea, Inc. a Minneapolis-based marketing and design firm was contracted by Hemisphere Companies to help develop and design a new hotel at the South Beach Resort and Casino in Winnepeg, Canada. Shea designed the hotel’s interior spaces including the lobby area, rooms, retail spaces, café, banquet hall, and pool. The existing casino’s South Beach theme and its bright, bold colors of the tropics were incorporated into the new hotel in a clean, sophisticated way. Shea also provided design recommendations for refreshing the existing casino in order to complement and blend with the new adjacent hotel. The grand opening of the South Beach Resort and Casino expansion took place on Friday, August 29.

Formed in 2001, Minneapolis-based Hemisphere Companies is a fully integrated hospitality organization offering "A to Z" solutions in the gaming and leisure space. Through various entities, the Companies' principals and employees provide expertise from concept development to site selection, design, construction, financing, pre-opening and on-going management.

Shea, Inc., now celebrating its 30th year, is a marketing and design firm integrating expertise in marketing, architecture, and interior design. Shea blends diverse perspectives, skills, cultures and knowledge into solid creative strategy for clients. Shea’s client list includes Macy’s, TCF National Bank, Morton’s The Steakhouse, Wells Fargo and Midcontinent Communications. For more information on Shea, please contact Andy McDermott at 612.594.4245 or visit our Web site http://www.shealink.com/.

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Shea - designed Trail Mark remodel unveiled in Galleria

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MINNEAPOLIS (September 5, 2008) –Shea, Inc., a Minneapolis based marketing and design firm, provided design services for the remodel of Trail Mark, an 1,800 square foot outdoor specialty retail store in the Galleria Mall, in Edina, Minn. The remodel was unveiled to the public on Tuesday, August 26.

Trail Mark has been offering outdoor and travel sportswear, comfort footwear, European fashion wear and top-of-the-line skin wear in the Galleria Mall for many years. In response to a shift in the company’s customer demographics over the last few years, Trail Mark came to Shea looking to refresh their image through the store’s design. The company wanted to elevate the customer experience by shifting the focus from “rugged outdoors” to “sophisticated outdoors.”

In the past few years, Trail Mark’s main customer base has moved from predominantly male to predominantly female shoppers seeking fashionable clothing for their active lifestyles. Trail Mark noted that the majority of these female shoppers have high-end brand awareness, where fashion comes first, and form and function are secondary attributes. Trail Mark also discovered that their shoe collections were gaining sales. These business results created some new merchandising opportunities for the company that were incorporated in Shea’s new store design.
For the store’s reinvention, Shea worked with Trail Mark to determine some strong brand elements that could be used in the design of the space. Trail Mark’s previous location had a recognizable storefront which incorporated a large red overhead garage door. The door remained as part of the new design and the distinctive red color was selected to represent the entire brand. An oversized 8-foot red bench and glossy-red antler chandelier adorn the space, and a red neon sign marks the entrance. With an Aspen, Colorado-inspired interior scheme, oversized mirrors and artwork depict inspiring outdoor scenes. Simple, high-end fixtures are mixed with raw steel and weathered materials, and a niche wall display highlights shoes and accessories with integrated fiber optics. The new store is edgy, high-end and sophisticated.

Trail Mark, 3265 Galleria Edina, Minnesota, 55435; phone: 952-929-1950





Shea, Inc., now celebrating its 30th year, is a marketing and design firm integrating expertise in marketing, architecture, and interior design. Shea blends diverse perspectives, skills, cultures and knowledge into solid creative strategy for clients. Shea’s client list includes Macy’s, TCF National Bank, Morton’s The Steakhouse, Wells Fargo and Midcontinent Communications. For more information on Shea, please contact Andy McDermott at 612.594.4245 or visit our Web site http://www.shealink.com/.

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Shea involved in district rebranding

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How would you like to take a taxi to Warehouse Central? How about Warehouse Live, Warehouse Zone, or No Ware?

Those slogans are a few of the ideas Shea Inc. has developed as part of a pro bono project to create a rebranded district around the ballpark. The marketing work is an offshoot of 2010 Partners, a group of stakeholders who want to find solutions to design challenges surrounding the ballpark property.

Regardless of the district’s name, a task force of 2010 Partners wants to build a new website that compiles all of the area’s events and businesses. “A lot of groups do that now, and we want to simplify it,” said Andy McDermott, Shea Inc.’s communications director. The area has a few different catchphrases at the moment — the light-rail station stops in the “Warehouse District,” and the area neighborhood associations include the “North Loop” and “Downtown West.” A group of bar and restaurant owners have decided to start independently marketing themselves as the “Warehouse Entertainment District.”

Twins President David St. Peter said there’s one chance to brand the area. “We need one simple message,” he said.

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3 Kittens Needle Arts Now Open!

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Shea, Inc. is happy to announce our client 3 Kittens Needle Arts is now open in Mendota Heights, MN. Check out these photos from a recent visit before their grand opening. You can learn more about 3 Kittens by going to 3kittensneedlearts.com.


3 Kitten's interior before products were added.












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Tommy Chicago's Now Open!!!

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Here are a few photos of the now open Tommy Chicago's in Mendota Heights, MN. Shea, Inc. had a blast working with owner Tom Magnuson on this project. Be sure to stop by and have a slice of some Chicago-style pizza!

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Horst - and Intelligent Nutrients - heat up

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Aveda founder and co-preneur Horst Rechelbacher has now officially launched his certified organic health and beauty brand, Intelligent Nutrients, with more than 20 SKUs. The initial collection includes aromatics, body cleansers, scalp, hair care adn styling products. The heart of the line though says Horst is Intellimune; an internal/external certified organic super antioxidant seed oil blend and tablets. This is the first phase of an entire lifestyle brand with future products to include skin care, body care, maternal/baby care, love therapy, pet care adn INvironmental products for the home.

"We've created something that has not been done before with Intelligent Nutrients. We've merged food science and cosmetic chemistry to create a new paradigm in beauty. We can it Nutritional Chemistry - it's based on using only certified organic food-derived ingredients - substances the body recognizes and readily assimilates and nutrients in the body," said Rechelbacher, who stunned the audience at a speaking engagement when he cracked open a bottle of his new hairspray, poured it into a wine glass, made a toast and drank it.

Intelligent Nutrients has its headquarters in Minneapolis. The company's line of health and beauty products will be sold through flagship stores in Minneapolis and New York, specialty retailers, salons, spas and at http://www.intelligentnutrients.com/. Horst also has a new book out called Minding Your Business. He writes about integrating green into your life and your work and how sustainable business equates to profitable business.

Celebrity chefs spice up hotel restaurants

Chains want to kick dining up a notch
By Michael S. Rosenwald
The Washington Post

Kobalt, the restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton on 22nd Street, certainly had character.
The carpet matched the upholstery on the chairs. The drapes were so heavy that nobody could see in or out. The walls: wood with silk panels.
Of the food, in 2001 The Washington Post's food critic wrote, "Sometimes I wonder if the chef is tasting his creations."
"I thought it was absolutely atrocious," said Eric Ripert, the famed chef and occasional television star behind the four-star Le Bernardin in New York City. "It was sad. It was ridiculously formal. I hated it."
Ripert is dismissive about the restaurant in the same way that new homeowners often speak about the previous owners' tastes. He moved in to the old location, opening Westend Bistro late last year as part of a spate of deals that lodging chains are making with celebrity chefs to repair the damage done by upholstery and poor food and to beef up the bottom line by drawing not just more overnight guests but city residents, too.
At Westend Bistro, the floors are hardwood. The tables are bare. The colors are deep shades of orange and red. The food is a cross between French and American cuisine. And reservations are hard to come by. It seems the moves by Ritz-Carlton, a Marriott International brand, are paying dividends. Most of the diners are not hotel guests. Revenue is up 50 percent, and profit is up 10 percent.
"This improves the overall profitability of the hotel," said Ken Rehmann, Ritz-Carlton's executive vice president of operations. "We are now appealing to a wider network of customers and going head-to­head with stand-alone restaurants. We see this as a smart business move."

Destination dining
Two decades ago, hotel restaurants served up great meals by some of the best local chefs, but the industry lost its way. The carpet from the lobby tended to roll straight into the restaurant. The atmosphere was so hushed you could hear a hotel bill drop. Even guests went somewhere else for dinner.
But big hotel chains have long tried to emulate developments in popular culture, and recently they have turned their attention to the celebrity chef culture that has invaded American cities, making near rock stars out of Ripert and Wolfgang Puck and Tom Colicchio, the head judge on the popular TV show "Top Chef."
"They are trying to go back to the days when hotels were destination dining," said Michael Costa, an editor at Hotel F&B magazine. "One of the hardest things to do in the restaurant business is get someone to walk through the door. Having a celebrity chef is a way to get them there."
In most of the recent hotel deals, the celebrity chefs license their names for hefty fees, design the menu and the concept, oversee operations with regular visits and install proteges as the everyday operators.
The redoubled efforts to perk up hotel restaurants with star chefs come as lodging chains are looking for creative ways to squeeze out more revenue as fewer business and leisure travelers hit the road.
Ripert also opened a Ritz-Carlton restaurant in Philadelphia. D.C. celeb chef Jose Andres is launching a restaurant concept for a Los Angeles hotel owned by entrepreneur Sam Nazarian and managed by Starwood Hotels and Resorts. Michel Richard, the owner of Citronelle, at the Latham Hotel in Georgetown, licensed his name to a California hotel and will oversee culinary operations.
Perhaps the biggest celebrity chef deal is Starwood's with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, the maestro behind Jean Georges, one of New York's top restaurants. Vongerichten is opening several dozen restaurants at Starwood properties, including the boutique W. (Las Vegas is a planet unto itself with restaurants by Puck, Colicchio, Bobby Flay, Emeril Lagasse, Mario Batali, Thomas Keller and Alain Ducasse.)

Home in the suburbs
Some of the new star chef-driven restaurants are popping up in unlikely places: suburban hotels. Chefs Mark Gaier and Clark Frasier have opened Summer Winter, which has its own greenhouse, at the Marriott in Burlington, Mass., 20 miles north of Boston. It is their first deal with a major hotel chain. "We are finding that 85 to 90 percent of our customers are coming from the surrounding areas, which is a really wonderful thing," Frasier said.
For the hotels, the restaurants also provide a halo effect in drawing attention to the hotel that could drive more banquet, wedding and bar mitzvah business. Guests also want to stay in a place that they perceive as being a hip outpost in a city they have perhaps never visited.

Old Facades Refreshed for Efficiency and Higher Rents

from The New York Times By ALEC APPELBAUM, Published: September 2, 2008 After paying $250 million in late 2005 for a drab 12-story building in Washington, built in 1968 a few blocks from the White House, Marshall Allan knew he needed to improve the appearance of the facade. It had an exterior of windows spaced five feet apart — much darker and duller than the all-glass facades that attract many commercial tenants.
Mr. Allan is a founder of Somerset Partners, a private equity firm that invests in high-density real estate. It frequently seeks faded buildings in central business districts, hoping to refresh them with new technology and amenities and charge higher rents.
Somerset’s architect, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, proposed creating an entirely new exterior and installing it office by office in stages, as current tenants worked out new leases or renegotiated old ones. The conversion to full-floor glass at the building, 1801 K Street NW, began in April and is to be completed in January at a cost that Mr. Allan describes as “in excess of $60 million.”
The renovation will not only provide the 10 office tenants and five retail tenants with floor-to-ceiling glass, it will also enhance the building’s glamour and increase its energy efficiency. Those improvements, in turn, can help a landlord lease bigger blocks of space at higher rents.
Somerset, according to an executive vice president, Gregory Knoop, is marketing 1801 K Street’s top two floors at an annual asking rent of $70 a square foot, 40 percent higher than the building’s owner asked before the renovation.
The project is a signal example of an emerging national trend as owners of middle-aged office buildings strive to provide better energy efficiency and handsomer appearance — and to do it fast, before an existing base of tenants disappears.
A whole generation of glass-clad office buildings will need retrofits in the next 10 years.
Some just look dowdy, as 1801 K Street did. Others are in cities where laws require lower greenhouse-gas emissions, as has been proposed by New York’s mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg. A well-sealed facade minimizes heat loss, and modern glass is better able to filter the sunlight so that it more effectively illuminates the interior. Such qualities can help reduce electricity use, especially on hot summer days when the strain on coal-burning power plants is most intense.
In other cases, owners worry that the brittle glass in early glass-clad buildings, which were typically built in the 1960s, may fail in the heavy winds and rainfall that climate change will make more frequent.
That is what happened at One Indiana Square, a professional building in Indianapolis whose panels blew off in a 2006 wind storm.
There, Gensler, a prominent architecture firm that has made a specialty of recladding buildings without displacing tenants, connected horizontal tubes to structural columns as rigging and installed a new facade of glass panels.
It put new prefabricated glass panels on a new set of beams, and then removed the tubes to create a new wall. “A crew will come into your office at night, take out the old window and old aluminum and old heating unit, vacuum and clean it out by the next morning,” said David Epstein, an architect with Gensler.
How quickly and easily a landlord can drape a new skin depends in part on the condition of the building’s core. In the past, conventional retrofitting typically involved an empty building or subjected tenants to rigging and scaffolds for weeks. Now, with the office market in a downturn, architecture firms have learned to do it without asking tenants to leave — or bothering them for more than a couple of days.
Despite weak glass, many buildings like 1801 K Street stand on skeletons of concrete, which strengthens over time. Skidmore tested the 12-story building’s concrete and found that it was as sturdy as anything a developer might build now.
So Skidmore realized that when a tenant left a space, the contractor could remove the existing inner panels and glass, then attach glass panels in new metal frames to create a new vertical grid. “It’s human demolition,” Mr. Allan said. “Guys come in and remove the wall by hand. An office wall can be demolished in a night, executives can work in an interior conference room the next day and come back to floor-to-ceiling glass.”
Somerset Partners is getting 600 more rentable square feet to each of the building’s 12 stories by moving the window line farther from the core. “We’re taking a building that had about 30 percent glass on the exterior and didn’t meet the energy code and making it one with high-performing insulated glass that exceed the energy code,” said Rod Garrett, an associate director at Skidmore. “It really does transform the building from the inside out.”
In other retrofits, today’s architects can make amends for past folly. William Pereira, who designed San Francisco’s iconic Transamerica Pyramid, concocted a Los Angeles tower for Transamerica in 1965 with horizontal and vertical fins around the outside, so it looked like a building covered in burrs.
LBA Realty, which bought the property in 2005 after it had become the AT&T Center, commissioned a lighter-looking facade with rods of light on top. “The goal was to emphasize verticality,” said John Adams, a principal at Gensler.
Contractors riding on a window-washing scale cut away the parallel fins and attached metal panels to the perpendicular ones to hold a new sheer glass exterior. The first phase of recladding ended in 2007, and the owner expects the entire project to wrap up late this year. “The effect on tenants was, I would say, nil,” says Mr. Adams. Energy costs fell 15 percent, says the owner, who is applying for LEED gold certification.
There is also an unusual new source of money for retrofits: the Clinton Climate Initiative, a project of Bill Clinton’s foundation, which has been applying a $5 billion loan fund from major banks to retrofit programs in 16 cities.
“There’s no question that reskinning the existing building stock will become more and more prevalent,” said Rick Cook, a partner in Cook & Fox of New York. The firm is recladding a Verizon equipment tower at 375 Pearl Street, near the Brooklyn Bridge, for use as an office building.
Frank Frankini, a senior vice president of Equity Office Properties, is managing a similar project in Midtown Manhattan. He told an audience in July: “Recycling older buildings in central business districts will come when there’s economic justification for landlords. And we’re there now.”
But many building owners may be cautious about undertaking such work. A McKinsey Global Institute study in 2007 reported that 73 percent of commercial building users would decline efficiency investments that failed to pay for themselves in two years or less, presumably through rent increases and savings on energy costs and insurance premiums.
For that reason, architects are learning to master quick recladding projects and the choreography they entail in occupied buildings. Gensler is developing a means of attaching an entire prefabricated exterior in 12 hours, though it has yet to test it. Jonathan Rose, president of a green-minded New York development and real estate consulting firm that bears his name (and whose Manhattan office at 380 Madison Avenue underwent an intrusive recladding in the late 1980s), has started a fund that invests in retrofitting aging buildings in central districts. He sees adding better-insulated glass as a vital way to make a building waste less energy, so long as the process does not drive tenants to relocate elsewhere. “If you have tenants in a building where you see the upside in greening,” he said, “you should keep the tenants happy.”

A Hotel in Theory, With an Image in Fact

Please see the article below which describes a project involving "the brand platform" from the New York Times By FRED A. BERNSTEIN Published: August 30, 2008 . The brand platform approach is how Shea, Inc. approaches every Client and project: The Shea team establishes a brand and business direction, and our design and architecture solutions are developed from that established direction.

LAST year, advertisements began appearing in magazines depicting sand, surf and, in one case, a model wearing a mysterious silver amulet.

“A lot of people, when they saw the campaign, thought it wasn’t selling anything,” said Alan Becker, the developer of Nizuc, a resort just south of Cancún, Mexico, where rooms will start at about $800 a night.

But his goal in the campaign was to get the Nizuc name in circulation. The point is to establish a strong brand before the hotel opens for business next year.

In fact, Mr. Becker, who is based in Mexico City, began creating the brand soon after buying Nizuc’s 28-acre site in 2005, and long before he had a hotel operator or an architect on board. (In addition to the 61-room hotel, the property will eventually have more than 150 residences, most of them apartment-style condominiums.)

Generally, an independent hotel developer like Mr. Becker begins a project by choosing an architect, or a hotel chain like Starwood or Marriott, to help determine the look of the building.
According to John Wolf, a spokesman for Marriott International, his company prefers to sign management contracts early in the design process, so that the hotel can be tailored to its standards. A hotel built without the company’s involvement may require renovations before it can be labeled a Marriott, he said.

Mr. Becker tried signing up a management company early, but it didn’t work for him.
In 2005, soon after buying the Nizuc site, Mr. Becker interviewed a half-dozen upscale hotel chains — a process he called “a beauty contest.” But, he said, “we couldn’t agree on a style for the hotel.” The companies, he said, proposed buildings “that had nothing to do with the location.” They were thinking more about their brand identities, he said, than about the site’s special attributes.

Mr. Becker wanted the building to reflect the history of the region, which was an outpost of the Mayan civilization. “We wanted it to be Mayan without being thematic,” he said.

Enter Leslie Smolan and Ken Carbone, partners for 30 years in a Manhattan branding firm, the Carbone Smolan Agency. Their previous jobs have included creating the graphics for the renovated Louvre in Paris and recruiting materials for the Manhattan law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

For Mr. Becker, 35, who had never before developed a hotel, they suggested deciding on the basic themes of the hotel, then trying to find a hotel operator who would share their vision.
That began the process of creating what Ms. Smolan called a “brand platform” — the basic ideas from which all other decisions about the hotel would flow. In the case of Nizuc, the theme was “Mayan culture brought into the 21st century.” (The concept leaves enough room for such non-Mayan necessities as sushi.) Once they had established the platform, they promoted the brand not only with print ads, but also with a short film produced at the site.

Mr. Becker would not say how much he paid the branding firm. Ms. Smolan calls her services cost-effective, because, she said, they streamline the rest of the process of creating the hotel.
Mr. Becker agreed. “We spent nine months working to understand, visually and graphically, what were the soul and the feeling we wanted to create,” he said. “Once we did that, it was very easy for everyone involved in the project, from the architect to the landscape architect to the interior designer, to get on board.”

After establishing the brand, Mr. Becker was able to enlist General Hotel Management Ltd., which runs the Setai, a luxury hotel in Miami Beach, and nearly 20 other properties, to operate the Nizuc hotel. G.H.M.’s chairman, Adrian Zecha, a former journalist who is based in Singapore, is best known for creating the high-end Aman Resorts chain.

Mr. Zecha, 75, who spoke by phone from Bali, said part of G.H.M.’S business plan is to operate five-star hotels that have “their own independent identities.” He said Nizuc “fits right in” and praised Mr. Becker’s initiative.

Mr. Becker and his three partners expect to invest $180 million in Nizuc, including the cost of the property (and an adjacent, 22-acre nature preserve), which is shielded from the lights and sounds of Cancún, he said.

The seller was the Mexican government, which had used the waterfront parcel as a presidential retreat — a Mexican Camp David. In 2004, the government decided to auction the land. One of its goals was to spur more high-end hotel development around Cancún, which to many has long been known as a raucous spring-break capital.

Mr. Becker bid $30 million for the land — 40 percent more, he said, than the second-highest bidder.

That might suggest he overpaid for the parcel. But he said he could make back his investment, both from the condos he is building there and from the hotel itself, where nightly prices will range from $800 for a 800-square-foot suite to about $15,000 for a five-bedroom villa. A top-of-the-line Marriott, the J. W. Marriott Cancún Resort and Spa, charges about $250 a night in summer.

To make sure the complex is compelling, Mr. Zecha brought in Jean-Michel Gathy, an architect who has designed many of the G.H.M. and Aman hotels. Nizuc will feature a row of six pools, each set at a different temperature, and cabana-like perches on a jetty built into the Caribbean.
Mr. Gathy, who is based in Malaysia, brought in a number of consultants, including a lighting design company, the Flaming Beacon, from Australia; a landscape designer, Nathan Browning, from Florida; and an interior designer, Jaya Ibrahim, from Indonesia. Mr. Becker said that building the hotel would cost about $79 million, or about $1.3 million for each of the 61 suites.
Mr. Becker concedes that working with Mr. Zecha is expensive, because every item is being custom-made for the hotel. Mr. Zecha’s company charges for its consulting services while the hotel is being built; once the hotel opens, it will receive a management fee.

As for Ms. Smolan, she is trying the branding-first approach again, this time with a former grande dame of a hotel, in Bordighera, on the Italian Riviera. The property, the Hotel Angst (named for its onetime owner Adolph Angst) has been a ruin for years; its new owners, based in Milan, expect to undertake an extensive renovation.

In the meantime, Ms. Smolan said, “there is no architect, no operator, but we’re creating a whole brand.”