The Silver Ramp is located in a busy area, where drivers make numerous lane and turn decisions as they drive adjacent to the ramp.

The ramp’s design included “aesthetic goals of having the ramp fit into the overall nature of the campus and be a backdrop to the new hotel,” said Monica Bettendorf Hartberg, the principal architect on the project from Miller Dunwiddie, where she is also the president and CEO. “The ramp’s façade has simplicity and a calming quality to it.”

The specially designed rectangular tubes are glazed in four colors – black, gray, light blue and white. They have a porcelain appearance on the outside and a fiberglass core that doesn’t impede radar function. The colors and gradient of the baguettes are meant to evoke the experience of flying into the clouds and the space between earth and sky.

All told, 57,758 individual baguettes are being attached to the ramp – placed on a total of 1,611 panels (one pictured above) and covering about 177,000 square feet of the ramp’s exterior – the equivalent of approximately three football fields.

PCL Construction and its team of subcontractors working on the ramp created an efficient process to install the materials. The individual baguettes are assembled into a panelized system locally with careful attention to placement of the colors to create the variation seen on the façade. 

Each panel, roughly 20’-0”x 6’-6”, is attached to the ramp structure with a carefully spaced metal framework to respect the requirements of the radar systems in use at the airport. 

While the exterior work will give the ramp an increasingly finished appearance over the next several months, construction work continues inside. The core of the building will include a new customer service area for rental car services and space for public transit functions.

The Silver Ramp will open in the spring of 2020, bringing a net of 5,000 additional parking spaces to Terminal 1.

Travelers arriving at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport’s Terminal 1 will notice some changes in the ticketing lobby starting Monday, Aug. 19.

Remodeling is requiring changes at the North and South security checkpoints. The work is being completed in phases inside the South Checkpoint, limiting the screening that can be accommodated.

Starting Monday, Aug. 19:

• All TSA PreCheck and CLEAR PreCheck passengers will use the South security checkpoint only. Airport employees will also use this checkpoint, freeing up space for passengers in the North Checkpoint.
• All other passengers, including standard, First Class/Sky Priority and CLEAR Standard passengers will use the North Checkpoint only.

In other words, travelers who don’t have PreCheck must use the North Checkpoint.

Signs and overhead messages will alert passengers in locations where they are most likely to make their security screening choice. Travelers will also be directed by airport staff and volunteers in the lobby.

Online, passengers will find information at www.mspairport.com.

Remodeling in the South Checkpoint will occur in phases over five months. The phasing allows the checkpoint to remain open for TSA PreCheck and CLEAR PreCheck passengers during construction. The work is expected to be complete by mid-December.

The work is part of a broader, multi-year project to expand and remodel Terminal 1 to facilitate growing passenger numbers and enable more efficient operations.

The changes only impact Terminal 1’s security checkpoints, not those at Terminal 2.

Sunglass Hut, the international retailer of iconic eyewear, recently opened a second location at MSP Airport.

The new sales counter is located across from Gate C12 in Terminal 1 and offers styles in a wide array of brands including Ray Ban, Versace, Oakley, Coach, Persol, Prada, Tiffany & Co. and Gucci. Hours are 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Sunglass Hut’s other location at MSP is also in Terminal 1, in the Airport Mall.