Star Tribune
Minnesota families, Edwin Lundie devotees mourn loss of historic Lutsen Lodge to fire
Skipping stones. A skillet breakfast with the warm morning sun streaming through single-pane windows as it rose above Lake Superior. Fly-fishing in a calm pool along the Poplar River, which spilled into the lake just in front of Lutsen Lodge.
For generations of my family — and countless others who celebrated weddings, enjoyed ski weekends or planned fall leaf-peeping trips — the lodge was beyond memorable. The loss of that historic resort in an early morning fire Tuesday was a gut punch for anyone lucky enough to have made memories there.
“So sad … absolutely crazy,” said one of my nephews after hearing the news, triggering a long-ago memory of watching him and his cousin slide back into one of the Adirondack chairs that always ringed a fire pit on the beach, even in winter.
As the Star Tribune’s real estate reporter for more than a couple decades, it’s literally been my job to appreciate buildings. I’ve lost count of how many photos I have taken of new home construction or stories I’ve written about another hotel development. Yet even when I came to Lutsen Lodge for these family trips, I couldn’t help myself from “working” by admiring the singularly Minnesotan beauty.
In many ways, the lodge was as evocative of the North Shore as the Big Lake itself. And the images of it burning were as disheartening, in some ways, as watching flames destroy part of Notre-Dame Cathedral in 2019.
“I’m grieving,” Dale Mulfinger said Tuesday morning.
Mulfinger, a Twin Cities architect and “cabinologist,” wrote extensively about Edwin Lundie, the lowkey but prolific architect who designed the iconic U-shaped lodge —with its striking red color and prominent brick chimney — as well as many other notable houses and cabins. Its loss, Mulfinger said, isn’t just for those who treasure it for the personal memories made there. It’s a loss for those who care about architecture.
The lodge, painted in Lundie’s trademark Mesaba Red, was just one of two Lundie-designed buildings open to the public. Most are private homes in Twin Cities suburbs and cabins scattered along the North Shore.
“We’re talking about a project designed by one of Minnesota’s greatest traditional architects,” Mulfinger said. “It’s a phenomenal legacy of his work.”
Lundie trained under Cass Gilbert and other architectural luminaries of the time. He had a knack for designing buildings that reflected the essence of a place rather than vanities of his own ego.
No doubt, the lodge had a North Shore vibe unlike anything else. With its massive hand-hewn posts and beams carved from centuries-old White Pine and a huge fireplace made from local stone, the building combined the structural heft of a Norwegian Stave Church and the enveloping charm of a classic Adirondack camp.
It wasn’t difficult to appreciate what Mulfinger and so many others so admired about the lodge. Lundie did something rarely done today. He designed virtually every element and nearly every detail inside, from the hinges to the doorknobs to the light fixtures.
“He drew everything,” Mulfinger said. “If his clients would pay him to keep drawing, he’d draw right up until the building was finally built. Even after, he’d given his clients beautiful drawings as Christmas gifts.”
You didn’t have to be a paying guest to experience the building. You could always step inside to step back in time, like a museum or an old-growth forest. Just a couple weeks ago, I marveled — for the umpteenth time ― at the imposing timbers, in awe of their strength. For Lundie, nothing was purely decorative: Everything had a purpose. A function.
For my family and so many others, it symbolized the North Shore.
“There are only a few structures that come to mind when one thinks of the North Shore and that was one of them,” Mulfinger said.
No doubt the resort owners will rebuild. But it is unlikely to ever replicate what so many are now mourning. In fact, on the morning of the fire, someone from the lodge vowed in Facebook post to build it back “better.”
It might be new, but it’ll never be better.
“It’s hard to imagine that it could replace what was there,” Mulfinger said. “It was significant in the whole of the Upper Midwest. We have a great state capital you find in most states, but you don’t find a lot of fantastic old hotels that were beautifully crafted.”
Agreed.
A former Medtronic consultant received an 18-month prison sentence this week for his role in a scheme linked to the $1.6 billion acquisition of an Israeli medical device company in 2018.
A federal jury in February convicted Doron “Ron” Tavlin, 69, of Minneapolis, of one count of conspiracy to engage in insider trading and 10 additional counts related to securities fraud. That same jury found David Jay Gantman, 58, of Mendota Heights, not guilty of all charges against him. A third defendant — Afshin “Alex” Farahan, 57, of Los Angeles — pleaded guilty in 2022 and has yet to be sentenced.
“His crime was cynical and brazen. It was also reckless,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Ebert wrote in a memo calling for a 3-year prison term. “Tavlin’s conduct had the potential to blow up a deal that a team of executives and financial advisers had been diligently negotiating for months.”
Tavlin is now scheduled to self-surrender Jan. 5 to begin his prison term, which will be followed by 320 hours of community service.
According to the evidence presented at trial, Tavlin learned about a secret, pending acquisition by Medtronic of Mazor Robotics, where he worked as vice president of business development, in 2018. Tavlin also previously worked as a consultant to the Ireland-based Medtronic, which also has a headquarters in Fridley.
Tavlin illegally tipped off Farahan, his friend, about news of the imminent acquisition and told him to keep the news secret. Farahan knew the deal would likely result in a boost to Mazor’s stock price and quickly bought more than $1 million of the company’s stock throughout August and September 2018. Medtronic announced plans to acquire Mazor, which specialized in robotics for spinal procedures, in September 2018 and the deal closed three months later.
Prosecutors said Farahan netted more than $245,000, and Gantman made $255,000 in profit by selling the securities quickly after the deal was publicized. Farahan paid Tavlin for the secret information about the pending deal — including a $25,000 kickback about a year later —according to prosecutors.
U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank, who sentenced Tavlin Monday, also ordered Tavlin to pay a special assessment fee of $1,100 – or $100 per each count. Frank did not impose a fine.
Star Tribune
Charges detail assault in Minneapolis that led to shooting rampage, killing one in Kandiyohi County
Another friend of the ex-girlfriend arrived to help. He pulled up in a car as the group exited the apartment and Matariyeh immediately pointed a gun at him before pounding on the windshield with the gun. Everyone fled as Matariyeh ran back inside the apartment.
The two men met in a parking lot before attempting to return to the apartment. That’s when they looked up and saw Matariyeh on the balcony. Matariyeh immediately began firing multiple shots at them as they took cover behind parked cars.
It was around this time that Minneapolis police officers arrived and made contact with Matariyeh’s ex-girlfriend. She believed he was still inside the apartment, but officers later learned that he had fled. They reached him on the phone. He told officers he was going to kill innocent people if he couldn’t speak with his ex-girlfriend or see his daughter, who was at daycare at the time. He later told police negotiators that “he wanted to go out by ‘suicide by cop.’”
All the while, Matariyeh was speeding westbound.
Police officers pursued him near Cosmos in Meeker County after being alerted that Matariyeh might have stolen another vehicle at gunpoint in Carver County.
Around 2 p.m. he pulled into the rural driveway of Peter Mayerchak in Lake Lillian. Mayerchak, who was in his yard placing hay over his septic mound, went and greeted Matariyeh, who shot him in the chest.
Mixing progressive dreams with dire warnings, a group of DFL leaders riled up a group of volunteers in St. Paul on Thursday morning, urging them to push on through the day’s freezing rain and fatigue in the remaining days before the election.
Several elected officials including Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar told the group of about 150 campaign staffers, volunteers and union members about how meaningful their work is to keeping DFL control of the Legislature, as the electeds start a statewide bus tour to turn out votes.
“We are here to keep our trifecta here in Minnesota,” U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar told volunteers on Thursday. “We’ve got five days, people!”
On the Republican side, House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said earlier this month that the House Republican Campaign Committee had raised a record $2.7 million ahead of the election and she said Republicans have also set records in volunteering and door-knocking as they work to break DFL control.
Minnesota Democrats hold a rally before starting a bus tour around the state to get voters excited, including Rep Ilhan Omar, Sen Amy Klobuchar, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, House Speaker Melissa Hortman, Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, Rep Betty McCollum and Sen Tina Smith on Thursday. (Glen Stubbe/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
“Republicans have the momentum and resources heading into the final stretch to win the majority and restore balance to Minnesota,” Demuth said in a statement. “Minnesotans are ready to move on from the expensive two years of Democrat one-party rule.”
House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said she thought voters preferred action to the gridlock of divided government. “They’re looking for people who can get things done,” she said.
These last-minute get-out-the-vote efforts come as Democrats around the country push to keep control of state legislative chambers and try to flip a few statehouses that Republicans hold by just a few seats.
The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the arm of the national Democratic party that works on statehouse races across the country, has spent $500,000 on Minnesota races this year, including House races and the state Senate contest.
