The
Foshay Tower, now the
W Minneapolis - The Foshay hotel, is a
skyscraperA skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building. There is no official definition or height above which a building may clearly be classified as a skyscraper...
in
MinneapolisMinneapolis is the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Hennepin County. The city lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Saint Paul, the state's capital. Known as the Twin Cities,...
,
MinnesotaMinnesota is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.2 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the...
. Modeled after the
Washington MonumentThe Washington Monument is an obelisk near the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate the first U.S. president, General George Washington. The monument, made of marble, granite, and sandstone, is both the world's tallest stone structure and the world's tallest...
, the building was completed in 1929 in the months before the
stock market crashThe Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash or the Stock Market Crash of 1929, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout....
in October of that year. It has 32 floors and stands 447 feet (136m) high, plus an antenna mast that extends the total height of the structure to 607 feet (185m). The building, which was added to the
National Register of Historic PlacesThe National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1978, is an example of
Art DecoArt Deco was a popular international art design movement from 1925 until the 1940s, affecting the decorative arts such as architecture, interior design, and industrial design, as well as the visual arts such as fashion, painting, the graphic arts, and film...
architectureFor a topical guide to this subject, see Outline of architecture. Architecture is the art and science of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures for human shelter or use....
. Its address is 821 Marquette Avenue, although it is set well back from the street and is actually closer to 9th Street than Marquette.
Early skyscraper
The building has been credited as "the first skyscraper west of the
MississippiThe Mississippi River is the second longest river in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico....
", although some previous structures in Minneapolis were considered by some to be skyscrapers. It still marked a significant landmark in the push skyward, as the tower was the first in the city to surpass the height of
Minneapolis City HallMinneapolis City Hall and Hennepin County Courthouse designed by Long and Kees, is the main building used by the city government of Minneapolis, Minnesota, also serving Hennepin County...
, completed in 1906. Being "west of the Mississippi" is also somewhat vague—it may have been the first building of its height in the upper Midwest, although buildings on the
West CoastThe "West Coast", "Western Seaboard", or "Pacific Coastline" are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. It most often comprises California, Oregon and Washington...
(such as Seattle's
Smith TowerThe Smith Tower, located in Pioneer Square, is the oldest skyscraper in Seattle, Washington, USA. Completed in 1914, the tower is named after its builder, firearm and typewriter magnate Lyman Cornelius Smith. Containing 42 floors, it was the tallest office building west of the Mississippi River...
) were as tall or taller. It remained the tallest building in Minneapolis until the
IDS CenterThe IDS Center is the tallest building in Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota at 792 feet . Opened in 1974 as the IDS Centre, it stood 775 feet 6 inches , though a 16-foot garage for window washing equipment was added at a later date...
reached the same height during construction circa 1972. It remains one of the tallest concrete skyscrapers to this day, second only in height to the
Empire State BuildingThe Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark Art Deco skyscraper in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. Its name is derived from the nickname for the state of New York. It stood as the world's tallest building for more than forty years, from its completion...
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
.
Structure and interior
Because the building was designed to echo the Washington Monument, the sides of the building slope slightly inward, and each floor of the Foshay Tower is slightly smaller than the one below it. It is also unusual in that the tower is set back from the street, with a two-story structure surrounding it on the Marquette Avenue and 9th Street sides. The other two sides of the building, facing 8th Street and 2nd Avenue, are now surrounded by the TCF Tower, which rises to seventeen stories on the 2nd Avenue side and entirely obscures the views from the windows of the first seven stories of the Foshay Tower on the 2nd Avenue and 8th Street sides. Internally the building uses
steelSteel is an alloy consisting mostly of iron, with a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most cost-effective alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
and
reinforced concreteReinforced concrete is concrete in which steel reinforcement bars , plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen a material that would otherwise be brittle.-History:...
. The exterior is faced with
Indiana limestoneIndiana Limestone or Bedford Limestone is a common term for Salem limestone, a geological formation primarily quarried in south central Indiana between Bloomington and Bedford. Bloomington, Indiana has been noted to have the highest quality quarried limestone in the United States. Salem limestone,...
, while the interior features
African MahoganyAfrican Mahogany is the common name for at least two types of trees:* genus Khaya of the family Meliaceae* genus Afzelia of the family Fabaceae...
,
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
marbleMarble is a non foliated metamorphic rock resulting from the metamorphism of limestone, composed mostly of calcite . It is extensively used for sculpture, as a building material, and in many other applications...
,
terrazzoTerrazzo is a faux-marble flooring or countertopping material.-Production:Terrazzo workers create walkways, floors, patios, and panels by exposing marble chips and other fine aggregates on the surface of finished concrete or epoxy-resin. Much of the preliminary work of terrazzo workers is similar...
, gold-plated doorknobs, a silver and gold plated ceiling, ornamental
bronzeBronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive, but sometimes with other elements such as phosphorus, manganese, aluminium, or silicon. It was particularly significant in antiquity, giving its name to the Bronze Age...
, hand
wrought ironthumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content, in comparison to steel, and has fibrous inclusions, known as slag. This is what gives it a "grain" resembling wood, which is visible when it is etched...
and three commissioned busts of George Washington. It cost
US$The United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents .The U.S...
3.75 million to build.
Dedication
Foshay Tower was the lifelong dream and namesake of
Wilbur FoshayWilbur B. Foshay was an American businessman, who built a fortune buying utilities throughout the Midwest in the early 20th century. Foshay built the Foshay Tower in Minneapolis, MN, which opened in August of 1929. In 1932 he was convicted of conducting a "pyramid scheme" with shares of his own...
, an art student turned businessman who amassed his fortune by building up three utility company empires (operating as the W. B. Foshay Company). At the time the tower was being built, he had sold his previous two empires in turn and was building up his third (which was eventually to stretch from Alaska to Nicaragua). He planned to locate his business and residence on the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth floors where a three bedroom, three bath suite was built, with a fireplace and library, Italian Siena marble walls and glass-paneled ceilings.
Foshay invited 25,000 guests to the dedication ceremony and provided all-expenses paid trips to many who included cabinet members, senators and congressmen. Half nude dancers entertained. Each guest received a gold pocket watch. The military gave 19-gun salutes.
John Philip SousaJohn Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known particularly for American military and patriotic marches...
conducted music, including "Foshay Tower-Washington Memorial March" a
marchA march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's Götterdämmerung to the brisk military marches of John...
he wrote for the occasion. Foshay presented Sousa with a check for
US$The United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents .The U.S...
20,000.
The march was only played once during Foshay's lifetime. Six weeks after the building's opening, Foshay's corporate empire was thrown into receivership (November 2, 1929) as the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
began. Ignominiously, Foshay's check to Sousa bounced, and in retaliation, Sousa prohibited the playing of the march so long as Foshay's debt to him remained outstanding. Foshay never lived in his new home which went into receivership. In 1988, a group of Minnesota investors repaid Foshay's debt to Sousa's estate, and the march was permitted to be played again.
Magney & Tusler
The Foshay was designed by Léon Eugène Arnal, chief designer for the architects Magney & Tusler, later known as Setter, Leach & Lindstrom, which was acquired by Leo A. Daly in 2003.
The building has the name FOSHAY in 10 foot (3 m) lighted letters on all four sides just below the top. A US patent for this display technique was filed in 1929 by Gottlieb R. Magney, Wilbur Tusler and Arnal and granted in 1931, assigned to the W. B. Foshay Co.
Later use
In January 1981, the building was wrapped in a huge
yellow ribbonA yellow ribbon is a symbol with various meanings, mostly associated with those waiting for the return of a loved one or of military troops who are temporarily unable to come home. In the Philippines in the 1980s, it became a symbol for the opposition leaders Ninoy and Cory Aquino and the 1986...
during the final days of the
Iran hostage crisisThe Iranian hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States where 53 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the American embassy in support of the Iranian Revolution.The...
. Once the hostages returned to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the ribbon was moved to the
Minnesota State CapitolThe Minnesota State Capitol is located in Minnesota's capital city, Saint Paul, and houses the Minnesota Senate, Minnesota House of Representatives, the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the Governor...
in
Saint PaulSaint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the north bank of the Mississippi River, downstream of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
.
The antenna on the roof has been used by different broadcasters, including
television stationA television station is a type of broadcast station that broadcasts video and possibly audio to television receivers in a particular area. Traditionally, TV stations made their broadcasts by sending specially-encoded radio signals over the air, called terrestrial television...
s
WTCNWWTC is a long-standing radio station serving the Twin Cities region. Despite its up-and-down history, the station spawned two of the area's major television stations and had some very innovative and unusual periods in its history. Today it is owned by Salem Communications and broadcasts a...
(a predecessor to modern-day
KAREKARE, Digital Channel 11, is an NBC - affiliated television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and serving the Minneapolis - St. Paul area of Minnesota and portions of western Wisconsin. It also operates KARE WX NOW, formerly known as NBC Plus on its second digital subchannel...
) and
KMSPKMSP-TV, channel 9, is the Fox-owned-and-operated television station serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota designated market area, owned in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate WFTC...
.
Radio stationRadio broadcasting is an audio broadcasting service, broadcast through the air as radio waves from a transmitter to an antenna and a thus to a receiving device. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast common programming, either in syndication or simulcast or both...
KFAIKFAI is a community radio station in Minnesota. The station broadcasts a wide variety of music, and also airs programming catering to many of the diverse ethnic groups of the region...
has been broadcasting from the tower since 1984, but moved their transmission tower to the
IDS CenterThe IDS Center is the tallest building in Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota at 792 feet . Opened in 1974 as the IDS Centre, it stood 775 feet 6 inches , though a 16-foot garage for window washing equipment was added at a later date...
in March 2007, due to the W Hotel renovation.
The only
NorwegianNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
consulate in the Midwest was located in the tower until 2007, when it moved to the
AT&T TowerThe AT&T Tower is a 464-ft tall skyscraper in Minneapolis, located on the corner of Marquette Avenue and 9th Street South. It was completed in 1991 and has 34 floors. It houses offices of AT&T, Wachovia Financial, the headquarters of Fair Isaac, the Norwegian Honorary Consulate General in...
across the street.
http://www.norway.org/minneapolis/promoelements/foshay.htm
Conversion to W Hotel
On September 4, 2006, it was reported that developers Ralph W. Burnet and Minneapolis-based Ryan Companies would spend as much as $90 million to convert the 32-story office tower into a 230-room W Hotel, part of
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwidethumb|right|Westin Times Square|250pxStarwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is a hospitality ownership, management, and franchise organization based in White Plains, New York. One of the world's largest hotel companies, it owns, operates, franchises and manages hotels, resorts, spas,...
.
http://www.northpine.com/broadcast/index.html All tenants with the exception of Keys Cafe on the first floor moved out.
A unique finding occurred at the tower when workers were replacing the ceiling in the hotel's lobby. When the lobby ceiling was removed, they discovered the room's original ceiling, complete with intricate engravings and embossed with various logos. However, due to past renovation work and age, the ceiling had deteriorated and was badly damaged. It has been reported that workers are currently in the process of restoring the original ceiling at the behest of the National Register of Historic Places, a process which will take a total of four months alone.
The renovated
W Minneapolis - The Foshay opened on August 13, 2008. The hotel retains the 30th floor observation deck and converted Wilbur Foshay's former boardroom on the 27th floor into the Prohibition Sky Bar.
External links