Cedar-Riverside sits just across the river from Mac Grove’s Saint Paul base, and its architectural range — from pre-1930s worker flats to one of the most recognizable Brutalist complexes in the Upper Midwest — makes it one of the more technically varied neighborhoods we work in across the Twin Cities.

The older residential fabric here reflects the same late-19th and early-20th century building traditions common to Minneapolis’s river-adjacent neighborhoods: modest single-family homes, wood-sided flats, and small multi-unit structures with painted trim, wood soffits, and the kind of layered exterior history that comes from a century of Minnesota winters. On these buildings, the work is methodical — proper surface prep on older wood, attention to paint adhesion on surfaces that have been through many freeze-thaw cycles, and color choices that hold up against the neighborhood’s urban density. The Mississippi River proximity adds humidity and wind exposure that accelerates wear on any exterior finish, something worth accounting for at the specification stage rather than discovering mid-project.

Painting in the Shadow of Riverside Plaza

Cedar-Riverside is defined in no small part by Riverside Plaza — the 1971–1974 complex of eleven Brutalist concrete towers designed by Ralph Rapson, including the 39-story McKnight tower. The complex’s exposed concrete surfaces, wood-grain imprinted panels, and signature bold primary-color cladding present a fundamentally different set of challenges than anything in the surrounding low-rise fabric. Large-scale concrete exterior work demands different coatings chemistry, surface profiling, and application methods than a wood-sided duplex on a nearby block. We approach these projects with that distinction in mind, rather than applying a one-size residential methodology to an industrial-scale concrete substrate.

The contrast between Riverside Plaza and the surrounding streets is genuinely stark — a few blocks separates 39-story poured concrete from modest two-story frame construction. That range is part of what makes Cedar-Riverside interesting to work in, and it shapes how we think about scope and material selection depending on which part of the neighborhood a project sits in.

Beyond the towers, the neighborhood’s institutional density near the University of Minnesota West Bank and the commercial activity along Cedar Avenue — including the converted storefronts and mixed-use buildings that now house places like Town Hall Brewery and Republic — means there’s a significant amount of older commercial and multi-unit exterior stock that benefits from thoughtful repainting as buildings change tenants or ownership. These structures often carry their own layered paint histories and require the same careful prep work as the residential properties nearby.

Mac Grove Painting brings the same approach to Cedar-Riverside that we apply throughout the Twin Cities: read the building honestly, specify materials that suit both the substrate and the climate, and do the surface preparation that makes the finish last. Whether it’s a wood-sided flat near Bluff Street Park or a large concrete exterior closer to the river, the fundamentals don’t change — the execution does.