Some legal notes:
The two more recent photos of the Sears Building at the begining of the piece were taken by Tony Nelson:

http://www.tonynelsonphoto.com/

As I am still in the process of shooting and editing this documentary I have not yet applied for licensing of all my archival footage yet. I wanted to make sure Mr. Nelson gets credit for those images.

The other archival images come from the Sears Archives in Hoffman Estates, IL and the Minnesota Historical Society.

The opening credit music is pulled from Radiohead's Kid A.

Now you can see why Creative Commons is such a good idea.

thanks, Scott!

Some places, when they are so well constructed, are more expensive to take down than it is to build in the first place. I worked in a heavyweight construction building, at least 15 foot ceilings, steel columns every 25 feet, fireproof poured concrete floors, and room for railcars to bring goods in and out. When I worked though, they phased out the river barge and rail access but they still had elevators for 15 ft trucks. The building changed from manufacturing to telecom and colocation facilities.

wow. that leaves me wanting to see more!

thanks for the link to the trailer - i'm sure i'll see the documentary when finished. The sears building holds some special significance for me, i grew up one block from that building, and got most of my school clothes growing up from that store, got my first video game system there, and of course had our family photos taken at their photo studio. Also my grandfather worked there as a buyer for many years, and my father and most of my uncles worked there for some time as well. Brings back a lot of memories!

Like Honey Bunny I want to see more.

My dad worked in that building for 30 years. He met my mom there. My brother also worked there and he met his wife there as well. That building has strong ties to my family and I'm glad to see it being revitilized.

Seeing those images reminds me of going shopping for school clothes, going into work with my dad on Saturday just for the hell of it and and the candy counter that had the saltiest popcorn in the world.

I look forward to seeing the entire documentary.

I just completed two more shoot dates in January. I am capturing and cataloging the footage. Once I have a new w-i-p edit, I will post it at the buildingcrossroads web site. I'll also notify Chuck who may post another excerpt here on MN Stories. Chuck?

The finished broadcast program will air shortly after the Midtown Exchange's grand opening. The date for those festivities have not yet been determined. Once it is, I will send out a press release for the first airing of the program.

I've interviewed around 40 people. I've recorded over 20 hours of footage. There's five more shoot dates scheduled and a whole mess of edit time.

Given all the interest, I'd love to post another update!

This was great. Absolutely captivating. I had thought about doing some sort of documentation of former Montgomery Wards employees at one time. (Basically my grandmother's words and ALL her friends) Never came to fruition.....