Downtown school’s ‘heart and soul’ on drawing board until fall

Submitted illustration: DLR Group / An academic commons building North Central University plans to build at 1401, 1413 and 1425 Chicago Ave. would become a center of student life at the school’s downtown Minneapolis campus. 

By Matt M. Johnson
Staff Writer

A proposed commons building that would anchor North Central University’s downtown Minneapolis campus could take some time to reach construction as the school raises funds for the project.

The private Christian college proposed the eight-story, 82,000-square-foot academic commons building earlier this summer for a site at 1401, 1413 and 1425 Chicago Ave. in the Elliot Park neighborhood. The building would rise on land the university owns that is currently used primarily for surface parking, said Nancy Zugschwert, the school’s communications director.

The building would visually anchor the southern block of North Central’s campus. Designs submitted to the city of Minneapolis show a glass façade stretching from street level to the top of the building oriented toward the southeast corner of Chicago Avenue and 14th Street East.

The building’s ground floor is designed to include a two-story lobby, a campus welcome center, a coffee shop, a gallery and a large event space. Members of the city’s Planning Commission had a look at the design at a July 25 meeting of the commission’s Committee of the Whole. Feedback in the nonbinding session was “generally positive,” said Commissioner Alyssa Olson.

However, commissioners may ask for some design changes, she said in an email to Finance & Commerce.

“There was some interest from a few commissioners in pulling the coffee shop and the front entrance to the building closer to the street to activate the ground floor,” she said.

Other space in the building would include lecture halls, offices, classrooms, laboratories and a small, outdoor rooftop terrace, according to a project description filed with the city. A future, second phase is being planned for the southerly portion of the site.

The school is asking for a number of variances and conditional use permits for the building to account for it being taller than the permitted height in that part of the Elliot Park neighborhood, and for modified setbacks from streets. The Planning Commission will likely take its first votes on approving these aspects of the project in October or November, said Hilary Dvorak, a principal city planner.

The school has yet to determine the cost of the building with its architect, Minneapolis-based DLR Group, Zugschwert said. But fundraising for the building is ongoing, she said. The school has not determined a construction schedule for the commons building, she said.

Intended to be the “functional heart and soul of campus life” at North Central, the commons building is also expected to “promote economic growth” in Elliot Park, according to the project description. The campus has facilities clustered on eight blocks just south of Hennepin Healthcare’s downtown hospital.

“We believe it will be a fabulous addition to the neighborhood, Zugschwert said of the planned commons building.

The project site abuts a building containing the campus’ radio station and another that houses North Central’s chapel and gymnasium. The school owns the entire block.

North Central has been working with DLR for the past 18 months on planning the project, Zugschwert said.