120 S. 6th St. - 366 feet - 28 floors - 1958

Minneapolis went through a period of decline during the middle of the last century.  As a result, we don't have many significant buildings from the 50's, 60's, and 70's.  That is a good thing, since either architects of the time refused to stray far from the International Style, or big corporations refused to pay for much more than boxes with windows.  In any event, we were doubly lucky to get three pretty good buildings from that era.  One Financial Plaza was the first.  It must have been quite a sight back then - 28 stories of glass and steel in the midst of an ocean of brick and stone.  It is still unique today.  No other tower is this shiny, this severe, this cold.

This is the only building in town where all of the regular elevators go down to the loading dock.  It also has a separate service elevator for the four floors that make up the base.  Thanks, guys!

I don't know where they came up with that name.  It sounds like an address, and implies that there is a Two Financial somewhere downtown.  This is a lie.  And financial...so what?  Pretty much every building downtown is filled with businesses that do nothing more than shuffle money around.  Big deal.  In my opinion, if a building doesn't have a huge anchor tenant, it should simply be named after some famous dead guy.