100 and 150 S. 5th St. - 498 feet - 36 floors - 1987

On the outside, the Fifth Street Towers are exactly what they should be.  This project is from the 1980's, and proud of it.  All too often, rounded towers come across like the insecure class clowns of

a skyline, trying just a little too hard to be unique. This happy couple, however, is a confident eccentric whose differences are welcome.  It helps that Minneapolis is the architectural equivalent of a 50 item buffet.

The interior is, well, stupid.  Some nice reddish marble is used, but it is augmented with hundreds of square feet of cheap maroon plastic paneling. Chintzy brass accents are everywhere.  The main elevators stop at the skyway level.  If you enter from the street, you must use either the awkwardly placed escalators or the slow parking garage elevators just to get to the main elevator lobbies.