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.
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