Cray Plaza

== Concept == 

St. Paul is a city where apartments poke above corner stores and neighborhoods have local bars. That mixing of uses was taken to new heights and complexity in a major downtown development called Galtier Plaza. Located in the Lowertown historic district, Galtier Plaza provides space for working, living, eating, and recreating in a self-contained project on one square city block.

This dynamic complex in a downtown setting represents a first for St Paul. Its 347 apartments, 121 condominiums, a comprehensive YMCA facility, 192,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 100,000 square feet of office space, and parking for 800 cars infused new growth for every kind of activity into a city of slow, steady growth.

Though only a few blocks from the staid Town Square, St. Paul's first mixed-use development, Galtier Plaza is light years away in concept and ambience. At Town Squre, office, hotel and retail uses are connected but distinct. At Galtier, the uses abut, overlap, and wrap around each other. The whole is a complex interweaving of the parts.

As for ambience, Galtier owes more to Riverplace, the mixed-use complex along the Minneapolis roverfront also spearheaded by local developer Robert Boisclair of the Boisclair Corporation. These two major urban developments share a certain glitzy spirit, and an eclectic architectural image. Both aspire in their approximately million square feet to create a new attraction to the city by accumulating a critical mass of uses.

But as the architects Miller Hanson Westerbeck Bell of Minneapolis, point out, Galtier Plaza is Riverplace compressed. While Riverplace stretches its individual elements along the Mississippi River, Galtier stacks them on one block and turns them inward along an interior spine. While Rivberplace began as a housing and office development with retail space added later, Galtier started with housing, retail, office and recreational components from the start. While Riverplace joined old and new buildings in an area of great historic significance but weak architectural fabric, Galtier built mostly new in a district of strong historic fabric.

But enough of comparisons, for Galtier Plaza largely avoided becoming Riverplace East, as many feared it would when developer Robert Boisclair stepped into the picture late in 1980.

== History == 

At that time the Lowertown Redevelopment Corporation, a non-profit coordinator of development in St. Paul's historic warehouse district, had sought to fill Block 40 for some three years. The site on Mears Park just east of the downtown business district represented the keystone in Lowetown's revitalization, and Lowertown Redevelopment Corporation's executive director Weiming Lu had patiently wooed developers with the concept of a mixed-use development and one eagar tenant, the downtown YMCA, in hand. "We wanted to carve something out of a concrete jungle to get people to come back to the city," says Lu.

Efforts to put together a project reusing existing properties on the block had fallen through, as had a modest proposal for housing and service retail by the Carley Capital Group of Madison, Wisconsin. The city had already secured an Urban Development Action Grant (UDAG) from the federal government for the Carley development, and called for new developers with a three month deadline looming. Boisclair and Omni Venture, Ltd. the developers of Minneapolis' International Market Square, responded with a proposal of considerably more ambition. With the UDAG in hand, potential for tax-exempt financing, and a loan from Lowertown Redevelopment Corporation, Robert Boisclair took on the development while Riverplace was barely underway.

Miller Hanson Westerbeck Bell's selection as architects for the project was almost a foregone conclusion. Not only had they done massing studies of Block 40 for the Lowertown Coproration to help entice developers, bu they had a history of designing housing for Boisclair which included Lakepoint Tower and the Falls and Pinnacle at Riverplace.

== Design == 

But, if securing the assignment was easy, executing it was not. Designing a project of such architectural, legal and financial complexity on one square city block in a sensitive historic area is one of the toughest challenges an architect ever faces. The conflicting demands of a developer convinced of his understanding of the marketplace and a nonprofit corporation committed to preserving the historic integrity of Lowertown had to be compromised under the pressure of the fast track schedule required by the UDAG. In the meantime, the economic climate was swinging from inflation to recession.

Galtier, in fact, was not designed once, but dozens of times. Construction was begun with minimal architectural plans and minimal budgets. Decisions were made when they had to be made, or sometimes afterwards. Wild swings in the economy changed the project's mix while construction was underway. "Originally we had more office space," says Mike Conlin, project manager with the Boisclair Corporation, "but the office market sagged, so we redesigned to build more rental housing within the same total volume. We also reversed the balance between condos and apartments. All this was happening while they were pouring columns for the parking ramps."

The location and form of the architectural elements was the subject of intense negotiation between the developer, the city and Lowertown Corporation. In addition, the financial partnerships involved in the project had to be expressed architecturally so that ownership of the complex could be physically divided. "There are baroque vertical relationships," says Steve Townsend of St. Paul's planning and economic development department, "that almost defy description."

The massing of the several elements on the block was the most important. The need to have a six-story base along the street front to maintain the cornice of the surrounding six-story buildings was dictated by historic and design considerations. The decision to fill out the block to the maximum met economic goals.

From those givens, it was a long and tortuous route to a final design.

The housing, originally proposed as one corner tower cascading to the base, was instead split between two towers. The taller one, the Jackson Tower, falls just under F.A.A. limits at 452 feet. The lower one, the Sibley Tower, is located 60 feet back of the Mears Park facade to lessen its impact.

The atrium, which Lowertown saw as a soft form -- perhaps a barrel vault -- beginning at the building line, became instead a gabled roof extruded beyond the building facade and stepping back to its seven-story peak. The developer wanted it to be 120 feet wide. It was narrowed to 90.

The skyway linking Galtier Plaza and the Farm Credit Bank toward downtown was proposed as a "festive" design with gabled peaks, lots of glass, and cream and red aluminum trim to match Galtier's. Lowertown's Weiming Lu and the city planning staff stood fast for the standard Vierendeel trusses and bronze aluminum. After three years and countless discussions, only a meeting in the city council chambers brought a compromise. The skyway has more glass than most, gabled skylights and cream-colored trim, but uses the standard truss.

Some of the decisions still rankle Weiming Lu, who is nationally known for his expertise on blending old and new designs. "All the parts of the project did not achieve the level of excellence we would like. Interior details could be handled better. the tops of the towers are not so good. I am not convinced that the changes in the typical skyway design were worth it.

"But as a whole, I'm very satisfied. It succeeds in relating to the historic district. The massing of the towers was handled as well as could be. And, with another developer, we might not have had the level of amenities we have. There is a real need for this project and it will ultimately be a success."

Galtier Plaza opened in 1986, while yet incomplete. The tile was still drying in the atrium, only a third of the shops were open, the housing towers weren't closed in, and the skyway link to downtown was unfinished. "It's like describing the first year in the life of a premature baby," says project manager Conlin.

== Today == 

Over the years, the building has seen quite erratic success, first as a shopping mall, then as an entertainment center, and currently is most notably occupied by independent technology companies, an event and presentation facility (carved out of the old movie theaters), a restaurant, and a food court. The most prominent member of Galtier Plaza is the new LoTo concept restaurant which may be considered an upscale food court in itself including a bar, wine tasting, café, bakery, and pizza oven.

The building arguably set the standard for mixed use concepts with its new design that differed from the national mixed use trend. It also won the award for the first place design award excellence from Development Design Group, First Place from National Mall Monitor Center's of Excellence, and Signs of the Times award for electric sign graphics.

It may take years for its mass to be totally absorbed. When it shelters the mix of activities promised, it will fulfill its potential for vitality in a most important place.