This page simply reformats the Flickr public Atom feed for purposes of finding inspiration through random exploration. These images are not being copied or stored in any way by this website, nor are any links to them or any metadata about them. All images are © their owners unless otherwise specified.
This site is a busybee project and is supported by the generosity of viewers like you.
Gottesanbeterin (Mantis religiosa)
(c) Julia Büttner
Posted on Instagram on August 6, 2012 at 3:53 PM · 0 likes, 0 comments
Minneapolis grew up around the falls of the Mississippi and became rich on flour milling. Its winters are hard enough that downtown is now laced with enclosed footbridges between buildings, so people can cross the city centre without going outside. On an empty morning like this one, the streets below can feel almost abandoned.
The tower on the right is the Northstar Center. When it opened in 1963 it was a bold attempt to pull shoppers and businesses back downtown from the suburbs: a mixed-use complex covering nearly a whole city block, marketed as a city within a city. It combined offices, a hotel, shops and a parking garage for around a thousand cars, and it took in the older Pillsbury Building of 1916. Its two original skyways began what is now a network of 9.5 miles of enclosed walkways connecting 80 city blocks. One of them crosses the street on the left of this picture.
Over the decades newer skyscrapers overshadowed it, and the building fell into disrepair. A long-term occupancy by Wells Fargo, which filled almost all of it, left it largely forgotten. Renovation began in 2020, and the reopening came in November 2024. The 17-storey west tower seen here became offices and furnished workspace, with cafés and event space at street level, which is what the new signage and lighting on the lower floors announce. The Pillsbury Building on the far side of the block has become apartments, and the hotel is now a Hotel Indigo.
Behind it rises the Rand Tower, 26 storeys of stepped limestone completed in 1929. It was built for Rufus R. Rand Jr, who flew in the Lafayette Flying Corps in the First World War, and whose family owned the Minneapolis Gas Light Company. The building was the company’s headquarters. The architects were Holabird and Root of Chicago, and the building has canted corners, vertical piers rising through the middle bays and Art Deco ornament inside and out on an aviation theme, including a bronze figure called Wings in the lobby. On opening it was the tallest building in Minneapolis, but held that title for less than a year before the Foshay Tower overtook it. It was converted into the Rand Tower Hotel in 2020 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
9-11 remembrance
