The demise of an urban motel

This was once a Ramada or a Hyatt or something, built in the 1960s. It occupied almost an entire block on Hawthorne Avenue between 10th and 11th streets, just outside the heart of downtown where land was cheaper and highway access easier. Unlike the older classic downtown hotels, this one was built more as a motel with a lot of surface parking. Part of it was up on stilts to allow ground level parking underneath. It had a restaurant, bar and indoor pool. As downtown has grown in recent years, there are newer hotels, again in the classic downtown style but now with plenty of indoor parking. Midcentury motels of this sort, once so modern and practical, became outdated, faded relics. By 2007 this one was the last of its kind in downtown Minneapolis. It had seen its best days and it quietly closed at the end of the year. I took this view along 10th Street, looking south from Currie toward Hawthorne.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Hotel
• demolition
• Minneapolis
• Minnesota

[rayofminneapolis]

Please film more tomorrow if demo is still in process...

[cleostreet]

Alas, I normally work more or less the same hours as demolition crews. I happened to be out on an errand the day I shot those. I'm unlikely to see it again before the job is finished. Oddly, there really wasn't any hue and cry over the fate of that motel. It appeared to be in really good shape up to the end, but its generic architecture wasn't nearly as distinctive as modernist gems by Rapson or F.L.Wright or anything. And the front, with all the better features, was the first part to go.

[rayofminneapolis]

NOOOOOO!

Why don't we have official city videographers do demo work!?

No knock on your epic camera phone work, cleostreet, I'm very pleased you were there to capture a moment in history. But there needs to be full sacle professional work done on everything before another brick is moved!

Did anyone take photos for sketchUp?

Interior shots? Is the plan available?

Well at least Cleostreet videos are geo-located. And well.