Culture
Lessons From the Raccoon That Scaled a Skyscraper
The critter that climbed a 25-story building in St. Paul, Minnesota, is a reminder: We could design for cohabitation between humans and urban wildlife.
The latest face of urban exploration—the kind in which daredevils scale structures of dizzying heights—belongs to a furry masked bandit with sharp claws and beady eyes, who found herself atop the 25-story UBS building in St. Paul, Minnesota early Wednesday.
It all began Monday when maintenance workers from a nearby building spooked a raccoon raiding a pigeon’s nest. Rather than climbing down, the critter scampered next door to the 305-foot UBS tower. And so began a harrowing ordeal that lasted more than 24 hours as the #MPRraccoon—so named after public radio reporter Tim Nelson started live-tweeting the spectacle—clawed her way up the concrete walls.