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Allison Shanahan

Feng Shui consultant Amy Theisen talks about the Target Centerâ€™s energy levels.

A space sleuth

By Michelle Bruch

Design consultant uses feng shui to analyze Downtown spaces

A quick glance at the Hard Rock Café yields a giant guitar jutting out toward the street, but feng shui consultant Amy Theisen sees much more. The guitar physically captures positive energy, she says, and channels more “chi” to Block E.

That’s lucky for the Hard Rock, because the restaurant faces a direction that typically brings lawsuits, arguments and gossip, according to Theisen’s analysis.

People tend to associate feng shui with interior decorating — featuring fountains and Buddhas — but Theisen uses feng shui to analyze buildings and landscapes. She has provided feng shui advice to residential clients in the Twin Cities since mid-2005, and she founded her company Infinity Life Design this year. She advises business owners on where to open up and how to organize their spaces for success.

Donald Trump uses feng shui in his new buildings, Theisen noted, such as the Trump International Hotel and Tower in New York.

Andrew Hong, vice president of the Feng Shui Institute of the Midwest, said feng shui is typically seen in new construction in Asia and on the West Coast.

“I don’t think the Midwest is at that scale yet,” he said. “People still don’t really fully believe in it.”

There are many mystical ideas to digest in classical feng shui, a 1,000-year-old Chinese practice that calculates the character of a particular property. As defined by Theisen: everyone has a destiny with a propensity to have good luck or bad. Similarly, buildings are constructed facing a particular direction that will bring the building good luck or bad based on the sun’s 20-year cycles of magnetic energy.

Miller Hanson Partners, a Downtown-based design firm, used a feng shui consultant for the interior of Le Parisien Flats in the Whittier neighborhood. Other design firms such as Shea Inc. have not seen a single request for a feng shui design.

Feng shui consultant Carole Hyder said some local design firms are on board with the practice and others are not.

Downtown-based James Dayton Design has fielded a few requests for feng shui in homes and small-scale projects, but staff member Patrick Regan said feng shui is not one of the company’s design principles.

“There are so many competing values,” he said.

Downtown’s feng shui

During feng shui analysis, Theisen uses a Luo Pan, a gold-colored compass covered with tiny writing that explains the minutiae of each particular reading. Once Theisen has determined a main entryway’s direction, she consults a manual that essentially reads the fortune for that particular direction.

In Downtown, the tallest buildings make up our “mountains,” according to Theisen. Building entrances should be situated so the mountains are standing to the northeast, because that is most beneficial for the flow of energy, she said.

The builders of the Target Center didn’t follow that advice, and their entrance is facing “East 1,” the worst possible direction, Theisen said. That direction is called Jue Ming, or “total loss,” and the bad luck is magnified by the ticket booths and other activities in the main entryway.

Unfortunately, skyways are not helping Downtown’s feng shui either because they create a negative “piercing chi.”

“It hurts the entire energy,” Theisen said. “It’s like stabbing somebody with a spear.”

Before founding Infinity, Theisen worked for 11 years at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Epidemiology as a microbiologist and as director of distance learning for the university’s Bell Museum of Natural History. That career path changed when she received a couple of books on feng shui for Christmas in 2003. The following year, she attended a weeklong seminar on feng shui and decided to continue studying the practice.

The following is Theisen’s feng shui analysis of a few sites on or near 1st Avenue.

Block E: Overall, Block E should fare well for many years because the prevailing energy there brings great fortune and success. Bellanotte has the best location in the complex and its sidewalk seating helps maximize the good vibes there by collecting “chi,” or positive energy.

“When you have a good area, you want a lot of activity there,” Theisen said.

The building does have a few problems, however. The Graves 601 Hotel entrance is located in a direction that tends to bring frustration and hassle. The operators of the hotel need creativity in order to be successful, and they should keep on the watch for fire hazards over the next 17 years.

Twins ballpark: A southeast-facing main entrance could mean another ill-fated complex similar to the Target Center. Theisen can’t get an accurate reading yet, but she expects the stadium to face a direction that yields “total loss” or a direction that promotes ongoing problems and lawsuits. (Based on the ballpark’s track record thus far, Theisen surmises that this prediction is on target.)

Butler Square: The main entrance taps into the same kind of energy that the Graves Hotel is netting. That means successful businesses are hit or miss.

“Nothing goes as smoothly as it could,” Theisen said.

Butler Square North: The front door is facing a terrible direction, similar to the Target Center, and the compass is reading some odd electromagnetic energy there. A huge pillar in the center of the entryway is blocking “chi” from making its way in, and the entryway is far too dark.

Target Center: Lots of doom is forecasted for this spot. The entrance is positioned to draw misfortune, failure in business, loss of wealth, disharmony and accidents.

As a longtime season ticket holder for the Timberwolves, that’s bad news for Theisen. She’s interested to see how the shifts in feng shui caused by construction of the ballpark will impact her team over the course of the season. Theisen is betting that the Wolves will play better at away games.

The good news is that the earth’s energy shifts every 20 years. In the meantime, Theisen said, businesses can boost energy by building spacious lobbies and expansive entryways that draw positive energy into buildings.

“Any little thing you can do may be the tipping point,” Theisen said.

Reach Michelle Bruch at 436-4372 or mbruch@mnpubs.com.