Minneapolis’s First Midcentury-Modern Skyscraper

Minnesota architectural photographer Pete Sieger captures the understated Canadian Pacific Plaza tower in era-honoring black and white

Photos and text by Pete Sieger | April 1, 2021

Canadian Pacific Plaza, originally known as First National Bank. All photos by Peter J. Sieger.

HISTORY HIGHLIGHT

Students of the midcentury architecture of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe have to love the 1959 Canadian Pacific Plaza at South Sixth Street and Second Avenue South in downtown Minneapolis. Originally known as First National Bank, the 28-story tower was designed by the Chicago firm Holabird, Root & Burgee, with the Minneapolis firm Thorshov & Cerny. A Guide to the Architecture of Minnesota notes that the building marked the introduction of the Miesian metal-and-glass skyscraper in the Twin Cities.

The photographs in the gallery above were taken from across Second Avenue and on top of the Foshay Tower and Leamington Municipal Parking Ramp. The images are rendered in black and white in homage to Ezra Stoller’s iconic photographs of the Mies van der Rohe–designed Seagram Building in New York City. First National, as I still think of it, remains my favorite midcentury building downtown.

The History Highlight department spotlights beloved older buildings and landscapes in communities across Minnesota.