Downtown/Lowertown : Featured Stories

Lowertown boasts a growing roster of relocated and expanded businesses—some from the suburbs, others spun out of Lowertown’s COCO, and some born and bred in the district’s office lofts and storefronts.  

This month we include the nationally recognized American Crafts Council Show, a bonanza of handcrafted items; a tour of a transformed warehouse in the North Loop; an all-women record release and cultural revision; and a good way to celebrate Earth Month.

We introduce the first in a two-part series about how MSP became the second-largest theater region after New York, as well as mobile, inventive and idiosyncratic.

This month's arts and culture branches out to include a new brew from the women-owned Urban Growler. That's not only the reason St. Paul is the place to be. Right: St. Patrick's Day.

More transit means more value: How community-driven (Frogtown) and historically aware (Lowertown) TOD works using community-led initiatives paired with city-developed plans that include affordable housing.

As anyone who’s spent a winter in MSP knows, the pace of life here doesn’t drop with the temperature or the snow. Show your visitors a great time this month with these classic MSP winter activities.

Meet Laura Zabel, urban innovator. At Springboard for the Arts, she's leading a national movement to support and engage artists as a vital part of community development.

The St. Paul Winter Carnival is a celebration of all things cold, snowy and fun, including bundled-up parades, dazzling ice sculptures and treasure hunts. Here's how and when to get to the carnival’s signature events using Metro Transit.  

In MSP, we certainly know how to keep busy, stay intellectually and creatively stimulated, and promote community growth—whatever the weather. In arts and culture this month, we kick off the New Year with a furry feminist art takeover.      

MSP is in the midst of a redevelopment boom that has touched nearly every part of the Twin Cities. Here are 10 projects opening in 2016 that will further transform our neighborhoods and communities. 

Since Artspace pioneered affordable artist live/work housing in the 1990s, disrupting the SoHo Effect in communities across the U.S., demand for such projects has grown. Which begs the question: Is affordable artist live/work housing becoming the new normal?

Imagine a day in a bike commuter’s boots. How does he or she prepare before walking out the door? How do they stay comfortable behind Arctic fronts and snow curtains — even the dreaded polar vortex. Here's how.

It's culture to go this month in our feature highlighting arts, entertainment and culture not to be missed in MSP. Stop into City Center for an on-the-fly dance performance. Check out--on your laptop, phone or tablet--Greycoats' music video shot in architect Ralph Rapson's Glass Cube. Catch District Energy's plume in the night sky in downtown St. Paul.  

Now that the holiday shopping season is upon us, Metro Transit riders in search of the perfect gifts can ride the 11-mile-long Green Line for an adventurous day that includes stops at dozens of locally owned stores. Here's a guide to get you started.  

As more people move to cities, how can rapidly developing neighborhoods tackle parking challenges without gobbling up valuable urban space for off-street lots?